Dujunji: Up for Adoption
by 27's Fury
Summary: Sometimes things aren't what they appear.Sometimes things aren't as harmless as they seem.Read as the monkey team finds this out...The hard way.Sucky summary!My own version of srmthfg-jumanji. Hope you like!Rated T just to be safe 'cause it's my 2nd story
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! **Mr. Nieli **does (don't know his last name). Anyway, I read a fanfic on here that inspired me to do this. But, be aware that it is of my own original thoughts and plot development, not a copy of another's. Hope you enjoy and R&R!!**

**--**

Chapter 1: The game Begins

The sun was setting upon the city of Shuggazoom. People were preparing for the night: closing down shops and restaurants filling out their last orders for the day, citizens vacating the streets for their homes to enjoy some family time. Yes all was quiet and peaceful…

"_**I wanna be a rock star!!"**_

… Well, almost quiet and peaceful.

"Otto, you've been singing the same song the whole time we've been out here!" Chiro stated to the green simian beside him, "Can't you choose _another_ song to sing? Besides, everyone's going inside for the night so please sing quieter. "

As usual, the monkey team was patrolling the city for any strange and/or evil activity. Tonight, it was Antauri on the farthest side of town; with his new silver body, he could patrol any part of town quickly if he was on his own, just like he was now… again. Sprx and Nova were checking the center plaza; if you listened closely, you could always hear at least one echoing _smack_ came from their general direction, an indication that Sprx had once again tried something on his yellow teammate or ticked her off somehow. Gibson was staying at the robot, scanning for activity that may be located outside Shuggazoom or off in space. This, of coarse, left Chiro and Otto paired up and patrolling the abandoned section of the city; condemned and solitary places like these could make good hideouts for someone with nasty plans.

Otto became bored after the first few minutes and thought singing would help. Unfortunately for Chiro's ears, it did.

"Hmmm, OK!!" Otto cheered.

"'_**Cause every time we touch!-"**_

"_Not_ that one either, PLEASE!!"

"Awww." Chiro's little green friend whined. He liked that song; it was one of his favorites.

"Anyway," Chiro said, "I think we're done here, so we can call it a day and head back to the Super Robot."

"'Kay!!" Otto yelled happily. Just as they were about to jet off, however, something caught their attention…

Drums.. They could hear drumming somewhere around the corner of the condemned building behind them.

"Hey, Chiro." Otto called his leader seriously while turning to look behind him.

"I know. I hear it too." The young boy responded, "Let's check it out."

They started walking towards the noise cautiously. Even stranger than hearing drums in the first place was the fact that the closer they got, the faster and louder the drumming resonated around the two of them. Otto and Chiro stuck to the corner wall, Otto's saws at the ready, and jumped around the corner to find… Nothing.

All drums halted, the ally way cleared of all signs of life.

"What?" Chiro asked, confused, "I'm pretty sure I just heard drums banging back here!"

"Yeah, I know," Otto contributed, retracting his weapons and joining the monkey team leader in his confusion, "I heard drums too but I don't see any—Hey!! Lookie there!!" He shouted, pointing at something underneath some stone rubble a few feet ahead of them. The green simian quickly made his way over to the strange object to pluck it from its resting place.

"Otto, be careful! For all we know it could be a trap." Chiro warned.

"Right." Growing serious once more, he carefully pulled the box from where it laid and backed up suddenly, just in case he triggered something. When nothing happened, Otto took his place next to Chiro's side and inspected what he found.

It was a strange wooden box that looked strangely like the back of an envelope, something akin to green flames decorating and lining the… flaps and around some weird orb-thingy placed at the top section. From the way the setting sun shined upon the semi-sphere, you could guess that there was plastic casing around it, possibly for protection. The left, right, and bottom sections of the box looked as if they could fold out into something, but Otto and Chiro weren't sure as to what that would be. Above the orb was a mysterious name made of the same material as the green flames on the box.

"Chiro? What's a 'Do…dung….guy'?" Otto asked, even more confused.

"Actually Otto, I think it reads 'DoJunegee'." The monkey team leader corrected, not too sure of his pronunciation either.

"Well, what's that?"

"I don't know." Chiro replied, "Let's take it back with us. Maybe it has some kind of sound device that caused all that drumming." Otto nodded and, with that, both activated their jet packs and made their way back to the Super Robot.

**A/N:**** Well, there you go! The first chapter of my second fanfic with more chapters coming soon. Just to let you know, Chiro pronounced it correctly; the name does sound like do-June-gee. I might post a pic of what the game looks like on my deviantart account, but that depends on if I can get my lazy butt to do it, lol. Anyway, I'll try to update as soon as I can or as soon as I get the second chapter figured out.**

**Type to ya later!**


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: All right, same as I said last chappie

**Disclaimer:**** All right, same as I said last chappie. No owney the team of monkey, lol. I know the last chapter wasn't that exciting or nothing, but the story's getting there. So sit back and R&R when you're done! No flames, either!!**

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**_Chapter 2: The Pieces, the Know-how, and the First Turn_**

"Dujunji? What's a Dujunji?" Nova eyed the wooden box.  
"Wait, you're saying you guys heard some drumming, went to investigate, and just found this under some rocks? Kid, it looks like it's been buried in a rock slide for ages!" Sprx called, standing next to Nova and looking at the box as well.  
"I know. But it was just out there. Gibson, you picking up anything?" Turning his attention towards the blue monkey, he waited for an answer.

When Chiro and Otto returned to the robot, everyone started questioning what they found while Chiro asked for a scan for any sound activation systems held within it. Now everyone was wondering and waiting as Gibson finished.

"Sorry Chiro, my scanners indicate that there are no machines, weaponry, or sound anomalies of any kind to create this drumming you say you two heard."  
"It's just a wooden box, then." Antauri concluded.  
"Tcha! Oh, I just said that!"

"Well," Chiro said, "let's open it up." With that, Otto carefully lifted the left and right sections of the box to notice a bottom section hidden underneath. Pulling that part down as well, everyone got in for a closer look.

It looked like… a board game.

Six paths with black outlines curved and twisted in every which way, even overlapping one another; the only thing to tell a path's direction were six little animal faces marking each individual space from beginning to end. The entire board was the same shade brown; the way to tell the board background from the paths was the thick black outlines mentioned earlier. Animal game pieces and small, light brown dice were situated on the right, with a paper folded beneath them. The animal pieces were: monkey, rabbit, snake, hawk, elephant, and lion. All six paths ended up leading to the weird orb at the top.

"… A board game?" Nova asked.  
"Ooo! Ooo! Let's play!" Otto shouted through the whole command center/main room.

Chiro slid the paper from underneath the pieces and read aloud, "Welcome to Dujunji, the ultimate board game for thrill seekers. Face your fears and challenge the great unknown with every roll of the dice. Choose your animal and place the pieces at the starting point of their matching paths. To figure out the order in which you'll be taking turns, you must use separate dice than the two included with the game. The first to reach the orb at the end must shout the name of the game in order to win."

"Ultimate game for thrill-seekers, huh?" Nova asked confidently.  
"Sorry, the only thing I seek is the heart of my dear lady." Turning to the yellow simian, he asked, "What do you say Nova, ready to give it up?"  
_Whack!  
_"Ow…"  
"Sounds simple enough." Gibson stated ignoring Sprx and Nova's bickering.  
"Sounds like a lot of fun!!" Otto once again cheered.  
"Oh wait." Chiro interrupted, "There's something else on the bottom. 'Warning: If you begin the game, there's no going back or starting over. Once you start, you must finish."

. . . . . .

"What do they mean by that?" Nova wondered.  
"What puzzles me is the separate dice they require of you to use to know the player's turn order. Why not just use the game dice instead? Antauri puzzled.  
"Aww, c'mon! Let's play!!"  
"I'm not sure Otto. Something feels amiss." The silver monkey said, eyeing the game with a hard-to-read expression on his face.  
"What are you talking about?" he swiped the paper from Chiro's hands and read the contents included with the game, "All the little pieces and stuff are right here!"  
"No airhead," Sprx said, "he means something doesn't feel right about the game."  
"Well, why didn't he say so?!" At this, the red monkey smacked his hand to his forehead.  
"Besides, it's getting late." Gibson cut in.  
"C'mon! One small game ain't gonna hurt anyone. Please?!" he pleaded.  
"Hmmm, I guess just _one_ game wouldn't kill anybody." Chiro joined.  
"And, with the exception of training, we haven't had any personal game time with each other lately." Sprx added.  
"It _would_ be great just to sit around and have fun with each other for once instead of discussing battle tactics for future enemies." Nova piped up.  
". . . All right." Antauri sighed, a small smile lining his face at the green monkey's reaction to the decision.  
"YAY!"

"I call the monkey!" Chiro called, picking the animal piece up quickly.  
"I shall take the hawk, if I must play." Gibson muttered, though a little excited to play himself.  
"Here Antauri," Chiro said, handing an animal piece to him, "you should be the lion. Being 'King of the jungle' just seems to fit you." The silver simian chuckled at this. "Very well, Chiro."  
"Ooo! I get the rabbit!" Nova shouted, also picking up her animal piece quickly.  
"**DIBS ON THE SNAKE!"  
**"**DIBS ON THE SNAKE!"**. . . . . .

Sprx and Otto turned to stare at each other competitively.  
"**NO WAY! I CALLED IT!!"  
**"**NO WAY! I CALLED IT!!"  
**"Oh no, no, no, Otto. You can't have it." The red monkey said matter-of-fact, picking the piece up, "See, the snake's too cool for you so, I should get it."  
"Oh yeah?!" Grabbing for the piece as well, Otto continued, "Well I think it's too cool for _you_!" Both now struggled for ownership of the piece, not noticing another member of the team making her way over…  
_  
Bonk!  
__Bang!  
_  
Holding their heads in pain, Sprx and Otto turned to Nova, now holding the wooden snake along with her own wooden rabbit, and looking at the two sternly.  
"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" she stated, pointing at them, "One match decides all. Winner gets the snake, loser deals with the elephant. Play **now**."

With nervous chuckles, the Christmas-colored simians put a hand in front of each other and chanted.  
"Rock, paper, scissors, **SHOOT!**"  
"Rock, paper, scissors, **SHOOT!**"  
"Darn it!" A victor was decided; Sprx had rock… but Otto had paper.  
"Ha! Paper covers rock! I win!!" The green monkey took his prize and celebrated, blowing a raspberry Sprx's way. The red monkey muttered curses under his breath, snatching and placing the elephant on its beginning space. Everyone else did the same with their own animals.

Looking around his room, Chiro found one dice and everybody rolled to figure out their turn order. It was Gibson first, then Sprx, Chiro third, Antauri fourth, fifth was Otto, and last but not least was Nova.  
"Sorry sweetheart. Better luck next time." The red simian chuckled.  
_Whack!  
_"_Shut up_, _Sprx_." Nova growled.  
"Oww… So.. worth it… But.. oww."

"Ahem." Antauri clearing his throat ended further argument, "Gibson, if you please."  
"Right then." With a quick shake of his fist-dice rattling loudly within his palm-he lightly threw the two cubes onto the board and rolled a five. As he went to move his piece, however, he was instead surprised as the hawk started moving itself.

"…Antauri?"  
"Yes, Chiro?"  
"Are you moving Gibson's piece with your powers?"  
"I assure you, it is not my doing."  
". . . . I was afraid you'd say that."

The hawk stopped moving when it reached its fifth space and…nothing happened. Everyone waited in silence.  
"Now what?" Nova asked from her seat between Sprx (right) and Otto (left).  
"Hey. What's happening with the orb-thingy?" Otto wondered innocently. Everyone turned curiously as words slowly started to appear in a green matching the title of the board game. Through his fascination-and since it was his go-Gibson figured he should read it aloud.

'_**Now the game begins with you,  
**__**your monkey friends and human too.  
**__**Do not worry, do not pace,  
**__**you'll be taken to a nice, warm place.'**_

"What's that supposed to mean?" Chiro never received an answer as the entire Super Robot began to viciously jerk every which way possible, knocking everyone to the ground-not to mention all around the room as well.  
"Gibson, try and see-ahh!" The monkey team leader never finished the command as one violent blow to the head rendered him unconscious.  
"_Chiro!"_ The monkey's yelled, but were not spared of getting their blows to the noggin shortly after. When the shaking ceased, all was quiet, as the monkey team remained on the floor in a forced sleep.

**A/N:**** Another chapter bites the dust! Lol. Thnx for the alerts, the comment, and the fav. to the people who did so for me. I tried to be less redundant this time for ya, but let me know if it still occurs in the story, 'kay? I also notice that the title I gave the first chapter fit **_**this chapter**_** instead, but it's too small an error-not worth correcting, also I'm too lazy to fix it anyway, hehe. I partially fixed it though, by naming this chappie at least somewhat appropriately to its contents. Anyway, more reviewers would be greatly appreciated!  
****Type to ya later! **


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Well, here you go

**Disclaimer: ****Well, here you go. This one took me longer to get posted because I always write out my chappies before typing them, in case anything happens and my comp. and it crashes or something like that. I could go for getting more reviews, but I'm just happy that I got some at all! A great big thx to you reviewers! I didn't know I was able to put ppl in character, and it's awesome that I can 'cause I always think I wouldn't be able to do anything else right and. . . **

**Uhh, I'm rambling… aren't I? Sorry, I do that sometimes, hehe. **

**Anyway, I may as well give you guys what you actually came to read for so enjoy and R&R!**

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**Chapter 3: The Elephant Moves and A Nasty Cat Attack**

About an hour after the quake, the monkey team started to wake, all with headaches.  
"Is everyone alright?" Antauri asked, standing up.  
"Uhhh, anyone get the tag plate on that space cruiser?" Chiro asked wearily, rubbing his hurting skull.  
"I believe that's a yes." Sprx winced, also rubbing his head. "Geez, and I thought Nova's hits were hard."  
"What happened?" Nova added, looking around at everyone.

With a grunt, Gibson marched up to the controls and checked the robot out to find out what caused such the strange incident earlier.  
"Well, so far, everything looks al—WHAT IN THE COSMOS?!"  
"What? What is it?" Chiro questioned, "Is something happening in Shuggazoom?"  
". . . I wouldn't know…We're not on Shuggazoom anymore."  
"What?!" Everyone shouted. Gibson then brought up an image showing outside the Super Robot. They gasped.

Instead of high-tech buildings and a small park surrounding them, it was a jungle. Trees so tall they came up to the Super Robot's waist; roots, flowers, vines, and leaves sprouting everywhere, making the jungle look very thick. Grass was growing around the ground, not a speck of dirt to be seen. Clouds took up most of the sky, as if it were about to rain, not allowing sun's rays to come down to the various trees below.

It looked like a normal jungle only… leaves and vines were a very light blue instead of their greenish color; flowers had black stems with light green petals (like the birthstone, august); the tree bark, trunk, and roots were the only things that remained their brownish coloring. The team stared in awe at what they beheld.

"Where are we?" Nova asked almost silently, continuing to stare.  
"And what's up with the plants?" Otto added mouth agape.  
"Gibson, think you can scan the surrounding area and find out where we are?" Chiro questioned. Gibson nodded.  
"Good. Otto, you check out the Super Robot's systems to see if everything's operating properly. Maybe it'll tell us how we got here." The green simian nodded as well and joined his blue friend at the control station.

"I will check Gibson's lab and make sure that quake didn't spill any dangerous chemicals." Antauri stated.  
"I'll go with you."  
"No Chiro, released fumes could be fatal; I'm fully robotic so if any are spilt it won't harm me."  
"Then let Sprx or Nova go with you, just don't go-" Chiro's sentence went unheard by the silver primate as he ghosted through the floor to the lab below  
"-alone. Huu, never mind." Chiro sighed, a frown creasing his lips; Sprx noticed. He always noticed when Chiro was upset, especially when it came to Antauri. He knew the kid never liked it when the silver monkey went on his own during things that could be dangerous—just because he was fully robotic.

"Hey kid, you ok?"  
"Huh? Oh, I'm fine just…" He sighed once again.  
"Antauri had the right idea. Nova, Sprx, we'll check our own rooms for any damage." With that, the three set off to their personal tubes.

* * *

"Nothing's wrong in my room." Nova called to her leader.  
"Everything was good in mine, except my magnet polish opened up and spilled everywhere."  
"Same goes for the stream in my meditation room."  
"Parts were all over my floor."  
"So it was the same as always?" Nova asked her friend with a playful smirk.  
"Hmmm, yeah!" Otto shouted with a grin.  
"What about the lab, Antauri?" Chiro asked.  
"Thankfully, Gibson put his experiments up and locked away for once." At the blue monkey's huff, he let out a light chuckle.

"How about you two?" the leader turned to the team's mechanic and scientist.  
"The Super Robot's working at full capacity, all except for the thrusters and jet packs on its back; not to mention the disengaging controls and contact transmissions."  
"So whatever brought us here wants to keep us here." Sprx stated, folding his arms.

"I've calculated and scanned this planet to find it's located somewhere up north, but all the same we're nowhere Shuggazoom City. This world's plant life is actually at their peak of life."  
"So let me get this straight." Sprx said, "We get interrupted from our game, get stuck on a planet far away from Shuggazoom, and we got no way to leave or contact anybody?"  
"Afraid so." Gibson told him.

As Sprx went off into his usual rant when things go wrong, Chiro started thinking.

'Somewhere up north. . . that's just what--'

"That's just what the game said." He gasped lightly.

"Huh? Kid, what are you talking about?"

With quick speed, Chiro ran around the room, searching for the game. Spotting it in a corner, closed, he knelt down and opened it up and was surprised to see something different. Oh sure, the animals and paths directions were the same, but the inner-board wasn't fully brown anymore. It was color-coded… and it matched the monkey team. The hawk and its path were blue, the elephant and its path red, the monkey and its path orange, the snake and its path green, and the rabbit and its path yellow. Antauri's piece, however, was silver while its path was black.

Picking it up, he brought Dujunji to his team so they could see for themselves.  
"Chiro now is hardly the time for games." Gibson scolded.  
"No, it's not that. Look." He showed them the inside and they became surprised as well.  
"You remember what the writing in the orb said?" He continued, "How it knew what we were? And about going somewhere warm up north? Monkey team, I think the game sent us here!"  
"But… but that defies all logic!!" Gibson panicked, "This game has no inner-mechanic workings of any kind!"  
"Yeah! It was just a game board, too!"  
"Otto! That's what I said!"  
"Fine, we'll test it. Sprx, your roll." Chiro threw the dice at the team's expert pilot.

The monkey quickly dropped the dice, however, and held his hands up defensively.  
"Oh no. If it is that game that caused this, I don't want any party of it!"  
"Remember the warning?" Chiro reasoned, "We can't stop the game until it's finished! If we end he game, we might just go back home."  
"Well, what if that's not the case?"

"Umm, guys?" Both friends turned to see Nova's nervous face, "I think the game counted Sprx dropping the dice as his roll."  
"What?"

But it was true. They looked to see Sprx's piece moving two spaces down the red path from its starting point. Once it stopped, words once again started to form in the orb. Sprx read aloud.

'_**You're the mouse,  
**__**he's the cat.  
**__**You better run,  
**__**or he'll eat you all in two seconds flat.'**_

"I don't like the sound of that." Said Chiro seriously, everyone taking on a defensive position. The team waited in a tense silence as…

nothing happened.

"Whew," Gibson sighed relief, "you see Chiro? I told you—" A growl from across the room stopped him mid-sentence.

"Well, well, well, lookie here. I have a good meal ahead of me." A voice. . . purred?

Out of the shadows stepped a tiger. Its main fur was jet black with unique tiger stripes the color of a medium emerald. Two fangs jetted out of the top of his muzzle as he continued to growl. His right ear was also nicked. The most interesting trait of this predatory animal, though, was his eyes. Where the pupil was usually black there was actually an emerald color, matching his stripes; the area around the pupil was pure black. While his eyes were lovely to behold, they also made the cat's eye more intimidating to them.

"My, my, you all look delicious. Especially _**you**_, child." The monkeys took this opportunity to gather in front of their leader protectively.

"Ahh, but you aren't my first target. . . HE IS!!" He pounced on the last part and in Sprx's direction. Sprx held the tiger's jaws from munching on him while the monkey team reeled back from the unexpected pounce.

As Sprx continued to struggle, Chiro took the incentive to act. Hew leapt at the tiger, effectively getting him off the red monkey.

"Are you alright?" Nova asked, inspecting her friend. Sprx already had scratch marks from the tiger fighting back to sink his teeth into the little monkey; thankfully they weren't too deep.  
"Aww, you worried about me? It's ok. Nothin' Gibson can't fix. Hey, where's-"  
"AHH!"  
"Chiro!" Everyone exclaimed, realizing they left their leader to handle the dangerous animal alone.

Chiro had just acquired a deep gash in his side and was breathing heavily, backed up to the wall. Scratch marks could be seen all over his right arm and both his legs; he was bleeding somewhat heavily. Apparently, this tiger had a **lot** of experience in handling his prey. The animal in question was licking the boy's blood off his claws, hungry for more.

'_I've got to get rid of this guy.'_ Chiro thought, _'My vision is already starting to blur and my head feels like it's swimming; not to mention it's hard to dodge with my clothes sticking to my chest and ar- wait… chest… of coarse!'_

"The one who rolled me was _supposed_ to die first, but if you're so eager, I guess I can make an exception just this once." The tiger smirked.  
"Oh, I feel _so_ special." Chiro retorted back. The monkey team started to rush over to help their friend but…

"Stay back!" Chiro ordered them, his chest heaving.  
"But Chiro-" Gibson started.  
"TOO LATE!!" the tiger roared and pounced towards his target.  
"No!" Nova shouted.  
"Chiro!" Otto yelled.  
"C'mon kid, move!!" Sprx exclaimed.  
Antauri and Gibson remained silent, freight clear on their faces.

Just as the predator neared his prey, Chiro unexpectedly ducked while pressing a button to his left. The tiger's surprise soon turned to horrific realization as a circular hatch opened up, leading to the deadly drop into the jungle below; he gave a loud roar as he went through.

A few moments later, Chiro used whatever strength wasn't being used on staying awake and breathing and looked out of the hatch. He soon regretted it, however, as pain engulfed his right eye.

"AHH!!"

"Chiro!" The monkeys ran over to their leader to catch him as he started to fall, the blood loss and pain too much to handle.

"You didn't think I'd be disposed of that easily, did you?" the tiger smirked, wind whipping around his fur. His smirk fell, however, as his claw's grip on the Super Robot's metal started slipping. With a final roar, he fell to his demise in the trees below.

* * *

"Good news, Chiro." Gibson said to the injured teenager somewhat happily, "It seems the tiger wasn't able to scratch your eye too deeply so you'll still have your right eye-sight."  
"And the bad news?" Nova asked from her spot next to her leader.  
"Well, it'll definitely leave a scar."  
"Great. A souvenir." Chiro said sarcastically.

It had been an hour after the attack; Chiro woke up not ten minutes ago to find himself wrapped in bandages and only seeing in his left eye, also because of bandages over his right. Currently, everyone was in Chiro's bedroom as he was lying on his bed being diagnosed.

Sprx got much better off, only having a couple bandages on his body.

"Well, now that we know for sure that the game is behind this, we'll need our rest to conquer what future challenges it offers." Antauri spoke wisely.  
"More like a nightmare rather than a game." Nova remarked.  
"Never the less," he replied, "It seems to be our only way home to Shuggazoom City. Come, let us all get our rest, we'll need it."

With that, all the monkeys-after wishing Chiro 'goodnights' and 'feel betters'-they left to their own rooms. Chiro, all the while, felt very uneasy, because he knew his turn was up next…

**  
A/N: ****Well, there you go! It took me a forever trying to type this out! And I still think I could've made the tiger scene better! Aww, well. I think you'll like Chiro's turn, it's got… well, it's got good stuff in it, but it might take me while, so have patience with me! Hope you enjoyed this chappie and R&R. No flames!!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Well, here's the forth chappie. I don't own super robot monkey team, Ciro Nieli does. I have a request for any srmthfg! fans out there. To know what that request is, read the A/N at the bottom of the chappie-But read the chappie first!! Enjoy!**

**--**

**Chapter 4: Oh A Hunting We Will Go, And Psycho People Come. . . **

The next morning, the monkey team awoke from a near-restless sleep, anxious about what the game would bring. After eating breakfast they had all gathered around Dujunji; Chiro made it with a little help from Gibson and Otto.

Chiro's right eye was uncovered, mostly healing overnight, though the scar-just as Gibson said-was clearly visible to all present. It was a long, curved slash starting from the right corner atop his forehead and ending about an inch over the bridge of his nose, two little scratches accompanying the left and right sides of the largest one. Every time he blinked you could see the claw mark's entire coarse over his face.

"How's your eye, Kid?"  
"Not bad. It's my side that's the problem." He answered his red friend.  
"We can wait and play when you feel better." Nova offered, concerned.  
"No, the sooner we play, the sooner all this will end. Hopefully." Chiro added that last part thoughtfully.

"Hey." Otto piped up, "Why don't we just take the pieces off the game board? I mean, if there's no players on the board, the game can't do anything, right?!"  
"We don't know the consequences such an act would bring. Not to mention the fact that if Dujunji was knowledgeable enough to take out the Super Robot's equipment enabling escape and planetary communication, surely it knows to protect itself against such an obvious self weakness."

"In other words, he already tried removing the pieces but they wouldn't budge." Sprx snickered at Gibson's embarrassed blush.  
"Thank you very much, _Sparky_." The blue monkey said irritatingly.  
"What'd you call me?!" He replied angrily, fists clenched.  
"You heard me." If you looked close enough, you could small bolt of static going from eye to eye as they looked at each other with their usual rivalry glare.

Their verbal battle ended abruptly, however, as both red and blue monkey felt their feet come out from under them. Nova looked at them from her spot beside Chiro with an innocent expression on her face.

"Ohh gee, was that my tail?" She asked in mock-apology, soon turning her voice stern, "You two morons ready to play now?"

With a final glare at each other and a rub of their own heads, both monkeys came and sat next to Nova, Sprx sitting right next to her and Gibson beside him and Antauri.

"Ok, here we go." And with that, Chiro threw the dice and rolled a four. Everyone-save for Antauri, since he had no lungs-held their breath and waited for the monkey piece to stop moving. It stopped and Chiro read aloud,

_**'He'll stab and he'll shoot,  
**__**just for the fun.  
**__**To the one who has rolled,  
**__**You might want to run!'**_

Chiro raised an eyebrow inquisitively and asked in a nervous tone,  
"Who's it talking about?"

His question wasn't answered as a bullet came from above-yet the direction it came from was behind them, nearly scraping Chiro's cheek, to hit the metal ground between Otto and Chiro's feet. The team looked up to see a man crouched in the shadows, on top of the tunnels.

Half of the man's head was bald save for one single thick lock (looks the same as someone's hair in a small ponytail) while the left had black hair; the right half went behind his head to wrap completely around the extremely thick hair on the left. He had bronze colored eyes-the left eye looked like any normal eye, but the right was inverted. The man looked to be in his late twenties, no facial hair, medium to strong body build, and wore clothing that could easily hide him in the woodland forest outside.

All in all, he was a handsome looking guy, except for his eyes and the strange emblem-like scar on the right half of his head, colored green and seeming to match the flame design on Dujunji's board. Well... that and the crazy look in his weird eyes...

And he was looking at Chiro with that stare...

"Do you not understand what you read little monkey brat?! Dujunji told you to RUN!!" The man shrieked, adding crazed laughter as he jumped from his perch to continue firing, which he did.

The rest of the hyperforce helped Chiro dodge the bullets using their jet packs. All they could do at the moment was use their weapons to block the rest of the bullets from hitting anywhere vital to them and Chiro. This wasn't good. They knew their leader couldn't handle some insane guy, not in his condition. They had to get him away, and fast.

Thinking quickly, and, having one of his rare moments, Otto pushed Chiro into his orange, personal transport tube, and punched in a transportation code. As soon as his leader disappeared from his view, he took out the key panel to Chiro's tube with one punch.

The man stopped firing and stood there for a moment, looking at the remaining members inside the command center, all monkeys taking threatening stances in front of their leader's tube, weapons out and ready to take this crazy man down.

"Look at that! Monkey brat's got some demonic stuffed animals to protect his hide!!" He chuckled madly.

"Uhh... Did he just call us 'demonic stuffed animals'?" Sprx asked incredulously; Otto shared his red friend's puzzled expression.  
"Seems as if this man is befuddled. Very befuddled." Gibson gave his input.  
"More like 'nuts' to me." Nova said with a smirk.  
"Don't underestimate this man, team. He may be on the farfetched side of his mind, but he is still dangerous."  
"C'mon Antauri," Sprx replied, "besides that gun of his, which we can protect ourselves against easily, he's got nothing!"

Crazy had just stood there and watched them curiously before getting annoyed.

"I'm bored with you demonic stuffed animals. I must hunt my real prize, it's been so long since I've had one that actually breathes." They stared at him. What on Shuggazoom can you hunt that doesn't breathe?!

Not waiting another second, the man threw something round on the floor, effectively filling the room with thick smoke on impact.

"A smoke bomb!" Nova coughed along with the others. The only one not affected by the heavy clouds was Antauri, again because he had no lungs. He was roving his eyes around the area, looking for the team's enemy.

He was caught off guard, however, as a knife came flying through the blinding smoke and hitting his arm with enough force to push him back a few feet and into the wall, stuck; the silver monkey screeched in surprise and a little pain at the unexpected attack. Sparks and wires came from his now damaged arm as he struggled with removing the sharp implement. The hunter came from the smoke-somehow still as thick as when he first set it off-with some strange yet small device over his nose, mouth, and eyes. He leaned over until he was at eye level with the silver simian and spoke.

"That should keep you out of my hair, mechanically stuffed demon, ha ha ha! Dujunji warned me about you and your mechanical-ness."

With nothing else left to say, the hunter shot towards the orange tube and, since it wasn't working properly, jumped down to where his hunt would continue.

"The hunt is ON!" He laughed hysterically.

* * *

Chiro, meanwhile, had been transported to the recreational/gaming center. The place was so huge it offered numerous places to hide during a laser tag game... or when an insane man is shooting at you wildly. He slowly made his way towards the other end of the room, hopefully to find a good place to stay hidden. While with the monkey team, Chiro matured quiet a lot; enough to know that in his current state he would be about as helpful as a fish out of water (I couldn't think of anything else!).

He was halfway across the room when he heard something like... laughter. Acting on a sudden impulse, Chiro jumped to the right; where a huge piece of, what looked like, machinery and kept out of sight as a thud resonated throughout the entire level.

"Oh, little monkey? Little brat! Where are you? My friends really want to meet you. Why don't you come out and say hi? Please?" The crazed hunter called in a singsong voice, "Awe, c'mon. Mr.Sharp 'n' Shine and Trigger Happy want to meet you!" He was whining now.

"Well, what's your name then?!" Chiro shouted loud enough so his voice could be carried everywhere, thereby keeping him hidden.

"Who me?" There was a silence then, "Hmm. Mr.Sharp 'n' Shine, what's my name again?"

Chiro turned his head slightly to see what the enemy was doing... and he couldn't believe it. There was the guy... talking to his dagger with a puzzled expression. Chiro's jaw dropped a little; was he really holding a conversation with his weapon?! Suddenly, the hunter's face brightened up.

"Ahh, thank you. You know how forgetful I am. Now if only Trigger Happy were as nice as you and as well mannered, he might get to kill more prey. Oh!" He gasped and giggled slightly, "Speaking of which, we forgot ours! Opps, ha ha! My name is Notrav, the most skilled hunter in all of Dujunji Forest."

"So that's what the jungle is called?"

"Why of coarse! It was the game that brought you here, so shouldn't its jungle be named after it?!" He answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why is the game doing this? How _can_ the game be doing this? Sending us here, having a tiger attack us, now _you_ come in here trying kill me!! How is it all possible?!" Chiro wanted answers, and a distraction for his enemy. While he was questioning Notrav, he was also maneuvering himself so he could get closer to his target.

"He he, like we're supposed to know?!" Notrav asked, the 'we' being himself, his dagger, and his gun,  
"HA! The game does what it pleases! How it has so much power and control is beyond us!"

**"CHIRO SPEARO!"** The surprise attack hit it's mark, coming from behind Notrav and hitting his left shoulder, tearing the fabric of his shirt.

All was silent. Notrav didn't move, just wore a distant, vacant stare; his shoulder bleeding somewhat heavily. When the blood poured from his shoulder down into his hand, he looked down to stare at it, his eyes holding amazement. Silence continued to reign until...

"HA HA HA!!" The madman laughed out hysterically,  
"The first strike is made. And by the MONKEY BRAT NO LESS!! Come little brat, try again!" With this, Notrav lifted his left hand... and drank the crimson dropping from it. Chiro was so close to puking; he was actually holding one hand to his stomach and the other to his mouth. Finally gaining back control over his sick feeling, Chiro tried another approach.

**"Lightning Kick!"**

...Notrav, unfortunately, was ready for him.

With quick speed, the mad hunter caught Chiro's leg with his right arm... and did the most disturbing thing Chiro thought possible. . .

He shoved his left, bloody hand into the boy's face; his hair and part of his clothing smeared in it as well. Needless to say, Chiro was grossed out beyond all possible thought or speech; all that occupied his mind was,

_'This guy's not only messed up, he's sick and twisted too! Who. . . what is this nutcase!!'_

Suddenly, pain ripped through his already wounded side, reopening the gash.

"See?" Notrav chuckled wildly, mouth held as a toothy smile, "I told you Mr.Sharp 'n' Shine wanted to meet you!"

**"BOOM-BOOM-WAKE-A!!"** A yellow fist hit across Notrav's face, forcing him to the ground, laying still.

"Take that you whack job!" Nova shouted, then headed over to Chiro to help in any way she could. What she didn't expect was for said 'whack job' to bounce back from her strike so quickly.

"How dare you interrupt our little game of the hunter and the hunted!" She sped back around in time to see him charging at her.

_'What!' _She thought frantically, _'How did he recover so quickly?!'_ Her thoughts ended as the angry hunter slapped her to the metal floor. She lifted her upper body and shook her head.

_'Whoa, tough guy.'_ She thought simply, her head still spinning a bit.

"Hey! Don't you touch her!" Sprx was mad, to say the least. As he was about to go over there and beat the crud out of Notrav, Antauri held him back by lifting his good ghost claw in front of Sprx's path.

"Antauri?"  
"You and Nova look after Chiro. I'll handle him." He responded, motioning to Notrav.  
"But Antauri, you're hurt!" Said Nova worriedly.  
"Yeah, you can't beat him like that." Sprx agreed, pointing to the silver simian's damaged arm.  
"He and I are equally matched in injury; I am not beaten just yet. Go check on Chiro." Not waiting for a response, he quickly made his way towards his opponent. Sprx stared on, looking more than a little ticked off.

"C'mon Nova, let's check on the kid." At her nod, they made their way over to their injured leader in order to offer their assistance.

Gibson and Otto were by his side; Otto looking concerned while Gibson was giving Chiro a once over to check for anything fatal besides the dagger still in the young boy's side. Chiro himself was trying his absolute hardest to get all of Notrav's blood off his face and hair; he winced as he moved, though, his side throbbing and bleeding.

"You're the medical expert, brainstrain, what should we do?" Choosing to ignore his given nickname for the moment, Gibson spoke quickly.  
"We have to remove the dagger and get Chiro treated." A heavy sigh escaped the red monkey's lips and he quietly stepped in front of his young leader.  
"Ok Kid, this is gonna hurt."

"Like I'm not hurt already."Chiro managed, trying to pull off a chuckle, though failing miserably as pain tore through his body once again. Otto and Nova held his arms to his sides while Gibson, wanting to give the boy at least a little comfort, continued on with Chiro's mission of eradicating himself of all Notrav's blood.

Chiro was glad that they were all here... well, almost all were here. He was just thankful they came when they did or he'd be a lot worse off.

"Now I'm gonna count to three. Ready?" Sprx asked, gripping the handle of the dagger.  
"As I'll ever be." Chiro responded.  
"One...two..-_YANK!_"

"OOWWW!! What happened to three?!" Chiro yelled bemused, wanting to throw his hands over his side; Otto and Nova held on tight. If he touched the gash with his dirty gloves, he risked getting it infected.

"Thought I'd surprise ya." Sprx answered, small, cheesy grin on his face in order to make light of the situation. Gibson, meanwhile, had taken Chiro's scarf from around his neck and, seeing as it was the cleanest thing the boy had on right now, used it to wrap up his side before the bleeding got too bad.

With all that said and done, everyone turned their gaze to the two opponents currently in battle. Antauri was faring very well so far, only suffering minor blows while Notrav got the bad end of the beating stick. His movements became slower with each passing minute and his vision blurring a bit; he realized that escaping now to hunt the brat again later seemed to be the best option, and the only one.

Earlier in his fight with the 'silver stuffed demon', he noticed at a glance a little button on the far side of the wall; thinking and hoping that was the door leading to his escape, he avoided another swipe of Antauri's claws and quickly threw another smoke bomb to the ground. Using the cloud's cover, he swept over to pick up his sharp friend and came to the button. It revealed to be just what he hoped for as the jungle came into view as the door opened; smoke traveling its way to the outside world.

"I'll get you later, little monkey brat! The hunt is not yet over! Not until I have your head mounted as my trophy! Ha ha ha!!"

Antauri glared at the man's retreating back until the escape hatch leading outside closed completely, then made his way over to the others.

"Are you alright, Chiro?" He asked, concern hidden within his voice.

"Oh yeah, just peachy." Chiro replied sarcastically. He looked a little more upset than usual and it wasn't because of his re-opened injury; Sprx caught the look and knew what his friend was thinking. He would need to have a talk with a certain monkey when he got the chance...

"Looks like you'll need stitches this time, Chiro. That dagger made your wound even deeper than before." Gibson said, analyzing the now red scarf.

"Ah, monkey doodle."

"CHIRO!"

* * *

"Did I really have to drink one of Antauri's veggie shakes?" The monkey team leader asked, tongue sticking out in disgust; he could _still_ taste it in his mouth.

"Well," Gibson stated somewhat sternly, as a father would talk to his son about learning a lesson, "Maybe next time you'll watch what you say. Besides, that shake is good for healing your injuries in a faster amount of time."

"Yeah, sure." He mumbled.  
"What was that?"  
"I said thanks for all your help Gibson." Chiro lied, putting on a little smile.  
"Just as I owe you my gratitude Otto, for the excellent work you performed on my arm."

The monkey team was in the Med. Bay, getting checked up for anything damaged. Chiro's side was properly stitched and taken care of, Nova was checked for any head injury, but turned out fine, and Antauri's arm was working as good as new.

"Naw, it was nothin'. Least I could do for getting us all in this mess in the first place." Otto blushed, showing his modest embarrassment.

"Otto, it isn't your fault." Chiro cut in, "I'm the one who suggested we bring it back with us so if anyone has to take the blame it's me."  
"But I convinced everybody to play."  
"We made it our own choice to play. Besides, none of us knew that this game could actually do _all_ this, otherwise we wouldn't have even messed with it." Nova gave her two cents.

"The fault belongs to know one, so let's not concern ourselves with it; we just have to focus on defeating this Dujunji and getting back to Shuggazoom City." Gibson added with a small smile, hoping to help cheer his green friend up with his words.

As they were trying to get Otto into good spirits once again, Sprx made his way close to Antauri and asked quietly,  
"Hey, can I talk to you alone for a minute?" Antauri looked puzzled but complied, nodding his head and following Sprx out of the Med. Bay towards the red monkey's room.

**--**

**A/N: Oooo, what does Sprx want to talk about with Antauri? Will the hunter, Notrav, really return for Chiro's head? What will Antauri's turn hold? Why the monkey doodle am I asking _you_ all these questions when _I'm_ the one writing this fic?! LOL. But seriously, about that request: If any srmthfg! fan that has an account on (or anywhere else that shows off fan-art) wants to make some fan-scenes out of my fanfic, that'd be awesome. Just let me know when it's been posted (alert me here on this account or on my account, the link for my deviantart account is on my profile.). I'll get the next chappie up as soon as I can! Also, some things I want to cover: 1. I have no clue how the transport tubes work so I guessed,  
****2. Yeah, Otto soo strong! He is my favorite character out of the whole group. I agree with the other ppl I've read fanfics from-he's the strong yet silent type. Ooo, so strong. (goes off into dreamy land), and 3. The place that Chiro was transported to was that one area in the Wigglenog eppie, where they're playing laser tag (if you didn't guess that already from my description of it in the chapter,lol).**

**Type to ya later!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own srmthfg! Ciro Nieli does (wow, rewriting the disclaimer gets annoying. lol).If this one feels rushed, I'm sorry, I'm getting busy with it being so close to exams-which are on the very last two days of school, summer being, like, 13-15 days away, a VERY big student exchange trip I'm going on the day AFTER I get out, going to a friend's recital this Friday, then spending the night afterwards, etc. I haven't got a clue how many chapters this story's gonna be, but I know I'm not done yet, no way, and I know who wins; I figured all that out now so it wouldn't be a future problem, hehe. Nor have I gotten any takers for my request of fan-art either, so tell your fellow srmthfg! friends, tell just plain srmthfg! fans, and I think I'm gonna start posting this on deviantart also… Sorry I'm rambling when that's not what you came for.**

**P.S. I'm not sure if I kept Antauri in character during his and Sprx's lil' talk or not- I know Sprx stayed the same due to the hot-headedness of his speech and actions, but Antauri…well, you guys will have to tell me if he is in character or not.**

* * *

**Chapter 5: A Talk Between Friends and A Waterlogged Feeling**

As Sprx and Antauri made their way to Sprx's room to talk, Antauri wondered just what his friend wished to talk with him about. They'd finally entered the room and waited. Silence continued to reign over them as one waited for the other to start his conversing.

"Why is it always you?" Sprx questioned out of the blue.  
"Pardon?"  
"You heard me." Sprx took on a serious tone as he continued, "Why is it always you who has to take the different job?"  
"I don't know what-"

"_Don't act dumb with me!" _The red simian yelled, "Most of the time when it comes to handling more than one bad guy or doing recon, you take the different. The one that gets done **alone**! Why? Why don't you let someone else take it instead? Why do you always have to be alone!"

"Sprx," Antauri wore a hard-to-read expression; one that could only be described as the silver simian thinking hard in order to answer something that's not easy to explain, "I've already said this: no monkey team member is ever alone."

Sprx only seemed to get angrier; Antauri just refused to understand just what the red monkey was getting at.

"Let me try this again. When that ice monster attacked Shuggazoom, what did you do? Don't speak!" Sprx said sharply, effectively cutting whatever response Antauri was going to use.

"What did you do? While the _rest_ of us went to protect Otto so he could heat the Super Robot up, _you_ stayed behind to hold off the ice witch; yes, I backed you up, but you didn't plan that. When the Dark One Worm was breaking through the planet, what did you do? _You_ sacrificed _yourself_ to seal him back up."

"Now wait-"

"When we encountered the Dark One for the second time," Sprx continued, as if Antauri hadn't said a thing, "what did you do? While _we_ were stopping Velina, _you_ encountered Skeleton King's skull _alone_ to save Jinmay!"

By this point, Sprx was practically shouting; turning his body around, his back now facing Antauri. Thankfully, they were still in Sprx's room so no one else could eavesdrop.

"When we were trapped in the dark one's stomach, what did you do? _You _faced off against Skeleton King's skull _alone_ _**again**_ while Otto, Gibson and I searched **for Chiro**!! Ohh," he added with a mock-chuckle, putting his hands up as if he were giving off an 'I don't know' shrug and looking up at the ceiling, "and let's not forget yesterday and today." He turned around, looking at Antauri.

"You felt that _you_ should check Gibson's _entire lab by yourself _instead of letting Chiro or anyone else tag along to make sure nothing in there blew you up or melted your chrome surfacing. Not to mention when Chiro's life was in danger; what did _you_ _do_? Instead of making sure Chiro was taken to safety and still breathing, _you_ had to give _us _orders to stay with Chiro while you chased off that crazed hunter _**ALONE!**_ Do you know how it felt to be the one to take that _dagger out of the kid's side and hear his scream of pain, knowing __**that you caused it.**_" At this statement, he put on a dead serious like tone, something extremely rare for the red monkey to do; his arms were tightly at his sides, shaking a bit. It sounded a little as if that part was meant to be for himself rather than his silver friend…

"Seriously, I could take all night and _then some_ recounting the times you've been alone in between the worm and now!!" Sprx threw his hands and head back into the air, finally breaking his glare.

Antauri was surprised; he didn't know Sprx had all this bottled up inside. He continued to listen to his friend's ranting, waiting patiently for him to finish and let out all of his anger; afterall, talking about what ails you helps you heal as well.

"Are you _still_ refusing to catch on here, or can your mechanical brain simply not compute everything that's coming out of my mouth!" That, however, was going a little over the line; ranting to him about a problem was fine, but insulting him wasn't called for.

"Now Sprx,-"

"Don't you 'now Sprx' me!" He yelled furiously, "You act as if _you're_ the only one who can take on the job without anyone's help!! You make it seem like you don't care to be around us! Especially to Chiro!!" The red monkey was breathing hard, trying to refill his lungs with air.

". . . What?" Antauri asked, practically speechless, "What.. what are you talking about?"

"Oh c'mon!" Sprx said, exasperated, "You mean to tell me you never caught on to how he felt about you taking the odd job? Especially after taking your own life to prevent the Dark One Worm from destroying everything!"

When the silver monkey's baffled expression remained, Sprx became stunned at this shocking revelation.

"You never_ DID_ catch on to just how much Chiro disliked you going off on your own in battle… did you?" He asked softly, all anger seeming to vanish instantly from his voice.

"…No, I didn't." The silver simian responded, sitting on the bed behind him, putting a hand over his eyes as a sigh escaped him.

As an uncomfortable silence overtook them, Sprx began calming his nerves, breathing deeply as he closed his eyes in order to think of what to say next.

After a few more seconds, the red monkey heaved a sigh as he plopped down beside his friend and fellow monkey team member.

"Look," He stated, "you can take care of some things on your own, you've proven that countless times, but so can _we_. Let _us_ take on some of the solitary heroics once in a while, ok?"

"Hmm, I believe you're right, Sprx. I am sorry for any and all emotional damage I seem to be inflicting upon you and the others." Antauri apologized with a sad tone lingering in his voice.

"No, no, no, the others and I … we understand how you like to handle things yourself; we've been with ya since day one," Sprx chuckled, but soon grew serious once more, Antauri turning his gaze towards his red friend.

"Chiro came later on, though. He understands your want to keep everyone safe, but when you started taking every one-man duty available to the team, I think it left the kid to start thinking some crazy ideas of how you might not care as deeply about him as you do the rest of us."

"Now _that_ is just plain nonsense." The silver monkey stated matter-of-factly.

"I know that and so does Chiro; he doesn't mean for his mind to wonder around those thoughts, but it seems to get harder for him every time you go off alone. You just… You need to show the kid that you care also. Show him that what he's thinking is wrong and that he does matter to you."

"But you just said-"

"Uh," he sighed putting his hands up as if to surrunder to some invisible force in front of him; shaking his head and closing his eyes, "Sorry, sorry, sorry for the confusion. What I mean is, he knows you care, but showing how deeply you do would mean the world to him, you know?" He concluded, putting a hand on his fellow monkey's shoulder. After a second of silence, Antauri gave a nod of understanding.

"I will try to the best of my ability… for Chiro. Thank you, my friend. I believe you have helped him, as well as I, a great deal." The silver simian said, also putting a hand on his fellow monkey's shoulder, Antauri's arm overlapping Sprx's.

"Naw," the red monkey offered, rubbing a finger under his nose as a means of showing his modesty, "I didn't do anything." Antauri gave off a small grin. "Oh no? You have helped a comrade in desperate need of it as well as reveal another comrade's flaw. As they say, you have 'killed two birds with one stone'." The red monkey blushed in slight embarrassment, causing the silver one to give off a small chuckle.

"Well then. I think we should make our way back before we are missed. Don't you?" "Yeah, don't want them bustin' my door down in a frantic search party. I know Nova's gotta be missin' me by now." Sprx puffed up his chest and looked as if he were a chick magnet (which, I guess to you huge Sprx fans, is true. Magnet! Haha!!); Antauri gave off another amused chuckle.

"Agreed." With that, the two comrades made their way back to the command center.

After all, it was Antauri's turn in the game….

**BbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbB**

"Oh good, you two are back." Gibson stated; all eyes now turning to see the red and silver simian enter the room. Otto looked a little happier, but if you looked closely, you could still see some guilt within that cute green face.

"What did you two talk about?" Nova questioned curiously.

"Why, miss me too much?" Sprx asked slyly.

_Clank!_

"Forget I asked." She responded as he fell face-first to the ground in pain, clutching his head.

Otto laughed at the site while Chiro giggled slightly, mindful of his side.

"Ok, team, let's continue this game." He said once his giggling stopped.

"Are you sure Chiro?" Otto asked concerned, "I mean, look at ya!"

"We need to get back home. Who knows what's goin' on in Shuggazoom City right now. It could be under attack and the only one there to protect it is Jinmay! I'll be fine. Let's just get this game over and done with."

Everyone nodded, albeit a little reluctantly.

Gibson went to retrieve Dujunji, deciding that the less his leader aggravated his hurt side, the better. Said leader went to the floor-from where he rested on the medic examination table-where the blue scientist had set it down and Antauri picked up the dice. Throwing a final glance to Chiro, and getting his nod, the silver monkey dropped the dice onto the board. He rolled a five, same as Gibson did on his first turn.

The lion piece moved almost too slow for everyone in the room to handle, but it eventually reached its fifth space.

"Man, this game moves SLOW!"

"Sprx, shut it! Antauri's gotta read the challenge!" Both condiment colored (couldn't resist! lol) simians turned their heads to their second-in-command as he read what appeared in the orb.

'_**It rushes and rises,**_

_**it allows you no breath.**_

_**Hope you can all swim,**_

_**to escape a watery death.'**_

"_Please_ tell me that doesn't mean what I think it means." Sprx said hopelessly. His answer came unexpectedly as groaning and creaking made its way around them, coming from the Super Robot itself. Then…. The water came.

Water gushed from the hallway leading to the command center, almost instantly flooding the little Med. Bay. With quick thinking, Chiro sucked in whatever air he could while the monkeys activated their scuba masks. Sprx and Nova grabbed onto Chiro's arms and quickly swam out of the Med. Bay and into the command center, Antauri, Gibson, and Otto following closely behind, unaware of the fact that they left the game in their hurry…

The command center was not entirely flooded yet so the team jet-swam to the water's surface, Chiro gasping as soon as his head breached; he coughed a little.

"We gotta get outta here. FAST!" Nova shouted, trying to think of a way out.

"The hatch to the Robot's chest!! Open it!" Her leader commanded.

Leaving Sprx to watch over him, she swam as fast as she could to the wall, the rough waves from the rising flood slowing her down and swishing her everywhere she didn't want to go.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, and with barely any space left for air, she reached the wall and immediately slammed her hand onto the button. She had to grip tightly to the side of the opening and push her jet's power to the near max so she wouldn't rush out with the rest of the escaping water.

"Hurry! Grab onto something or you'll get pulled too!" Wasting no time, the other team members held fast to the tunnels that were nearest to them.

"WAIT!!" Gibson shouted, "Where's the game?!" All the others seemed to realize at the same time that they left the only way back home in the Med. Bay…. Where it was likely to rush out into the jungle with the water and grew panicked. What would they do without Dujunji? How would they get home if it were gone?

"I'll get it!" Otto suddenly dived under, swimming and putting his jets on their highest setting in order to fight the current and swim towards the Medical room, his friend's protests going unheard.

**BbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbB**

Swimming was tiring him out, and at an alarming rate at that. He knew he was on a limit of endurance here, continuously fighting the raging current, but he had to get that game! He just _knows_ he's the reason everyone was suffering like they were… mainly Chiro so far. He had to make up for it some_how_!

Thankfully, he didn't have to swim the whole way, for just a few feet ahead was Dujunji floating quickly with the current, as if to meet him.

"Hey, the game came to me! Maybe it's not such a-_oof!_" His sentence was cut short, however, as the force of the game hitting him in the chest knocked him into the wall behind him.

This made the green monkey lose whatever was left in his strength reserves, save for his clutching onto the game and his jets keeping him pinned there instead of following the water's raging path. He felt really light-headed and couldn't think straight—at least not fully straight.

'_I can't black out! I need to get the game back to the others; not to mention it's my turn. Wait… WHERE'S THE DICE!!'_

Unfortunately, just as he thought this, the little cubes swept past him with the water, leaving him shocked and disappointed with himself.

That wasn't the worst of his problems, though, as he noticed that just as the current was beginning to die down, a large, heavy looking piece of machinery seemed to get caught in the water's rage and was floating at fearsome speeds…

…straight for him. He could barely move as his and doubted-no…knew he couldn't get out of the way in time; not to mention the box was too heavy to avoid at this point anyway.

'_No…'_He thought desperately, _'We have…to finish the…the game! I…I can't….I can't cause anymore…anymore trouble for them!'_ were his last thoughts as he completely lost consciousness, hoping to come out of this alive…

* * *

**A/N:**** HA!! MY FIRST CLIFFY!! I hope it was good enough for ya'll. Like I said, I felt a little rushed and thought most of this up on the spot. Otto's face is not only cute-but ADORABLE to me as well! C'mon! Who agrees?! Huh!? Lol, anyway, I know I keep changing the way the time and/or location skip and stuff like that are, but hey, I'm new here so I don't know what all I can use, but I think I'll stick with this. The entire line running across the page is the start/end of a chapter while the continuous capital 'B' line shows a time and/or location skip within the chapter. So don't worry about that anymore. It has also come to my attention that some of you have noticed my focus on Chiro in these first few chappies. Don't worry, not all the bad stuff will happen to the young leader of the group but some stuff is still more to come for him. And for you Spova fans, well, let's just say that sometime in the future-I won't say when!-you'll all be very pleased and maybe a lil' amused, depends on if you think I have a sense of humor or not, lol. Once again, the request for fan-art is still out there in the open so please feel free to contact/alert me if you want to do make some.**

**Type to ya later! **


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own srmthfg! Ciro Nieli does (am I even spelling his last name right?! Lol) Don't ask about the title either, I just thought it'd fit, lol. OMGosh!! Thnx to a VERY good friend/reviewer on this site (**leavingyouforme**) I noticed that I didn't talk of what happened to the dice!! I've added that into the chappie now and once again, THNX LEAVINGYOUFORME!! I OWE YA ONE!!**

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Chapter 6: Handle Fur With Care

When we last left our favorite green monkey he had just fallen unconscious with a huge box heading straight for him. The box floated faster and faster towards Otto, who remained pinned against the wall and asleep, could do nothing about it. Just as it drew close to a few inches from his head . . .

"**Spin Shocker!!"**

A blue lightening bolt jutted out from the doorway and threw the dangerous obstacle off its coarse. It was at this time that Otto opened his eyes, a terrible headache coming fast.

"G..Gibson?"

"Indeed. Couldn't let you go it alone, could I?" The blue monkey asked, lightly smirking behind his mask.

"Gibson... I los-"

"No time for idle chit-chat, Otto, we've got to move."

The room was now only half-full and the water's current barely strong. Gibson put an arm around his friend and swam his way to the surface, Otto still grasping the game with all his strength. When they reached the surface, both deactivated their masks and swam their way to the command center where the others were surely waiting.

"Are you guys ok?" Chiro asked when they entered.  
"A little bang to the cranium for him, nothing serious." Gibson responded.  
"And the game?" Nova wondered.

Otto held up the object in question, smiling and lightly chuckling through the pain in his noggin; he started to swim on his own by this point, his strength returning to him. Being a fast healer was a great advantage. But soon his smile turned into a frown as he looked down at the water just inches from his face.

"Sorry guys but... I-I-I lost the dice. They floated right past me and I didn't notice until it was too late."

"No need to worry about that old friend."

Otto picked his head up to see Gibson holding said dice and began to grin from ear to ear.

"Yes well, as I came as your back up I spotted these little troublemakers heading my way and grabbed them before they could ge-AKK!"

Gibson was cut short as air left his lungs forcible by Otto's deathhug; Otto was very happy...maybe a little _too_ happy.

"Ohh, thank you thank you **THANK YOU!!** YOU ROCK GIBSON!!"

"Otto...," The blue scientist wheezed with what little air he had, "Can't... breathe!"

Otto looked at his friend, who was bluer than usual, and quickly released his hug of doom. Gibson gasped and sucked in as much air as possible once he was freed.

"Oh, he he. Sorry Gibson." The green monkey apologized.

"Good work you two. The water seems to have stopped flooding and exiting the Super Robot. Sprx and Nova, go and open the main hatch below to release the excess water."  
"You gonna be ok floatin' by yourself, kid?"  
Just as he was about to answer, Antauri cut in.  
"That won't be necessary, Sprx. I'll hold onto Chiro."

Surprised, but a little pleased with his friend, the red monkey waited for Antauri to get close enough, then-as Chiro placed his other arm over the silver simian's shoulders-released his hold on his leader's opposing arm. After that, him and his yellow crush reactivated their masks and swam into the watery depths below.

Up above, Chiro began to speak, his gaze never leaving the spot where his two comrades dived under.  
"…Antauri?"  
"Yes Chiro?" He turned his head to look at his friend.  
"…Nothing. Just.. thanks." At this, Antauri first put on a surprised expression, but soon relaxed into a small smile.  
"You're welcome."

A moment later the water began to once again deplete, meaning Sprx and Nova had completed their task. This time the team decided-as Sprx once said-to just 'go with the flow'.

When they reached their destination, they found themselves lying on the grass outside; the verdant area was much bigger and colorful from this view.

"Wow…" Chiro gasped lightly. No one else could describe it as anything more than that one word.

Sprx and Nova, the first ones to spill out of the robot due to being nearest to the hatch, lifted their faces from where they rested on the forest floor to see what was so 'wow' and stared as well.

The trees were enormous, towering over them with such height it was difficult to tell where they stopped. From here, the tree canopies were such a blue above you could mistake them for the sky themselves; the vines from this angle looked darker than the leaves, but the team assumed it was due to the lack of an opening from said leaves where sunlight could pour in. One tiny space for sun to come in, however, allowed an object on the ground to sparkle, if only for a second before clouds reigned the sky again, making the sparkle disappear, but not before catching Sprx's eye.

Turning his head to the side, he noticed nothing more than a couple roses a short range from him; the red monkey was shocked to see the petals were not regular plant petals, but actually shining crystalline-like shards. They had to be the lightest august green the simian had ever laid eyes upon, seeming to be near transparent; The stems actually resembling black silk and, when Sprx reached his hand out and wrapped his hand around one of them, found it also to feel as such.

'_Wow. What a strange flower. Ladies would KILL for a bouquet a' these.'_ He stopped in his tracks and grew a big smile. _'INCLUDING a special yellow simian I know."_

With the greatest of gentleness he could muster, Sprx pulled the silky crystal rose from the ground and stood up, admiring his prize, then quickly made his way to Nova's side.

"Hey Nova." He said in a quiet singsong voice, hiding the rose behind him. She turned her head to face him, the surprise of the close-up scenery wearing off, and gave a curious glance his way.

"Yeah?"

"…Uhhh…Um.." He suddenly began to stutter and unexpectedly blushed lightly, his cheeks-in response- became brighter than the rest of his face; it was as if he was the school's geek that no one would want to be around asking the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen to prom!

'_What the heck?! I've had no problem talking to her before!! Why's it so hard to do now?!' _

Noting how her expression became even more curious, he tried again.

'_C'mon you DOLT!!'_ He thought furiously,_ 'Wipe that blush off your face AND GIVE HER THE STUPID FLOWER!!'_

He sucked in a breath, steeled his nerves as best he could, sped his hand around from behind his back and…

Watched the rose instantly disappear from his hold.

"Huh?!" Sprx stared, confused. For a moment he thought Nova had snatched it away the second she laid eyes on it, but finding that she was just as confused led him to the blue scientist who was now walking away, Sprx catching a scarce glimpse of black in his hands.

"Hey! Get back here!"

Gibson, who was mumbling about running scans on plant life and such, turned his head to see an angry Sprx stomping up to him.

"I got that for her not you!" He yelled to his blue friend, pointing to the yellow monkey who was now noticing the roses as well. Sprx became crest fallen.

"Aww great! Now I can't!! Thanks a lot brain strain!! You just made me miss a golden opportunity!" Gibson huffed.

"By what I could tell, **Sprx, **it was your **own** blubbering like a fool that made you miss this 'golden opportunity'," He brought his hands in air quotes, "you seem so upset about."

"THAT'S IT!" With that final statement, he tackled Gibson to ground, shouting angrily, Gibson doing the same as they fought, oblivious to the fact that the rose was now in the air, falling now to the ground below, where a certain yellow simian just happened to be headed…

Nova was heading for the others when all of a sudden a falling object caught her eye. Looking up, she caught sight of something green; holding her hands out she caught the rose and looked at it, mesmerized at the strength and beauty of it. Hearing the fight between the two others, she vaguely heard-along with other thing s she couldn't repeat-Sprx mention something about "that was meant for her!" and "it was the best thing ever to give!" and some others similar to that. Watching the fight and glancing at the flower she blushed as she made the connection.

'Sprx…picked this for me? That would explain the nervousness I saw a moment ago but…how thoughtful of him.'

Stepping over to the quarreling monkeys, Nova picked Sprx away from Gibson. Assuming he was sure he was going to be beaten to bloody pulp for ticking his crush off, Sprx prepared for the worst and shut his eyes tightly. What he didn't expect was warmth to meet his cheek tenderly.

Nova, pleased with his reaction, dropped him to the ground and continued her way to the others, holding onto her gift as if it would break if she were to do anything other than holding onto it.

The reaction in question was: hearts in his eyes, blushing madly, and with the goofiest smile possible, Sprx melted in a love daze on the ground; Gibson stared at him disbelievingly with an 'HOW'S THAT POSSIBLE! NOVA KISSED HIM! SHE ACTUALLY KISSED HIM OF ALL PEOPLE!! THE WORLD MUST BE ENDING!!' expression.

'_Heh heh. Stopped the fight _and_ gave my thanks to Sprx in one move. Killing two birds with one stone, you gotta love it!' _Nova thought triumphantly. And to think, all this happened within the little time the rest of the team used to get over the shock of the flood and scenery—which lasted a total of about five minutes.

All gathered together, Gibson holding up his love-dazed red friend, the team sat in a circle just outside the Super Robot's main foot hatch.

"Ok, so whose turn is it now?" Nova wondered aloud.

"Now hold on team." Antauri stopped whoever was about to answer, a serious expression about him, "I believe that from now on we should stay outside at all times when playing Dujunji, save for medical emergencies and times of needed rest or food."

"How come?" Otto interjected, puzzled.

"As we have discovered, the game interacts with its players and their environment. That being the case we cannot risk any more damage to the Super Robot." He answered.

"…Natrov mentioned something," All turned to their leader, listening carefully, "how Dujunji seems to have all this power… and how no one knows why it does this to people or just how its powers came to be… how it does what it pleases."

Everyone was silent, absorbing this new information.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Sprx broke out of his love daze when Chiro started speaking, "Let's finish this 'Dujunji' and get home to Shuggazoom! Otto, your turn."

Otto picked up the dice and rolled, a serious expression mounting his features, and rolled a twelve.

"Nice going Otto!" Nova complimented.

"Yes! Woo-hoo!" Otto shouted in glee as the snake moved its twelve spaces. When it finally stopped, Otto read aloud.

_**'Not all are the same,  
**__**this will be fixed.  
**__**Where there were five monkeys,  
**__**Now their will be six.'**_

All immediately understood what was about to happen, but none could hope to stop it. Light blue smoke with green streaks shot out of the orb and straight at Chiro, lifting him in the air and causing him to scream in pain as the transformation begun.

A tail sprouted, black fur appeared, a muzzle grew on his face, and his scream turned into an inhuman screech; Chiro was then dropped unceremoniously to the ground as the smoke escaped back into the orb as fast as it went in.

The monkey team crowded around the boy—monkey in hopes that he was alright.

Suddenly, Chiro shot his head up, startling everyone into backing up with a jolt. Chiro curiously turned his head from simian to simian, proving that he still had his scar from the tiger attack and sharing brief glances with them; he was also chatting questioningly, as if he barely knew them. His gaze halted, however, when it fell on the silver team member. Chiro stared for a long time before slowly making his way, on all fours, and stopped inches from Antauri, looking closely at his eyes. Antauri just stood there, remaining calm and allowing Chiro to inspect. Finally, he spoke softly.

"Chiro? You ok?"

". . . Ant-Antaur-uri?" He sputtered, trying his best to make the words come out of his mouth. The others seemed to understand why this interaction was taking place and sadness took over their features; the second in command, who looked around at his teammates as their faces dropped, became more confused than ever.

"…Yes, it's me, Chiro."

The now monkified leader continued to look closely into his eyes for what seemed like hours on end. Then, without warning, Chiro scooped the silver monkey into his paws in a loving hug.

"An-taur-ri" he stuttered along with some happy grunts.

Antauri was surprised, to say the least, as he turned to give Gibson a questioning glance; if anyone could explain, it was him.

"He must be acting on the same feelings he had when he first became that of the monkey species during our battle with the Dark One Worm to keep it from hatching… when you sacrificed yourself to seal it back in."

"He was really upset and felt responsible for what you did." Sprx cut in,

"Told me one day while we were training one-on-one. Somehow the topic just came up; said that since he was the leader, he should've been the one to stop it, not you. He cried, too. Tried to tell him otherwise, but he wouldn't listen." At this, everyone went silent-except for Chiro's quiet sobbing.

Noticing this, Antauri's mind went blank for a minute, not knowing how to help a sad monkey…

**'**_**You need to show the kid that you care also.'** _The red monkey's words tore through, as if giving his brain the solution._ **'I mean, he knows you care, but showing how deeply you do would mean the world to him.' **_Those words set in mind, Antauri gently-so as not to scare the poor monkey-brought up his left ghost claw and laid it upon Chiro's head, hoping the claw's movement would reach beneath the fur and help calm his distressed leader.

"Shh-shh-shhh." He whispered, moving his hand forward and back in a soothing motion, "It's ok. I'm here. Don't worry. I'm here now and I'll never have to leave again, ok?"

Bringing up his other ghost claw to wrap around Chiro's back, and noticing just how tense he was, Antauri let a small smile slip as he continued.

"Rest now, you need it."  
Still tense.  
"Don't worry, I'll be right here when you wake up." Antauri tightened his hold on his leader, "You're important to me and I'll always be here for you Chiro. No matter what I'll always be here when you need me… because I care very deeply about you, Chiro… and I'm sorry I never told you this before now."

The monkey team stared on in silent wonder, as the words seemed to be having the desired effect, calming Chiro's cries and replacing them with continuous deep breathing, meaning that he had fallen asleep.

The first one to break out of the group stupor was Gibson.  
"Come on." He whispered almost silently,  
"Let's get to the med bay to see what can be done about this."

Antauri held onto the now monkified leader for a few moments longer before allowing the blue monkey and Sprx—who also came back to reality only a moment after Gibson started speaking—to help hold up the weight of their leader and carry him to the medical stationary aboard the robot.

"Nice job." Sprx commented with a soft grin.  
"It wasn't a job, Sprx." Came the soft reply. Sprx turned his head towards him in confusion.  
"It was something I should have done long ago."  
Sprx's smile came back even bigger than before as he nodded his head in understanding and turning to face his front.  
"Either way, you gave him the world."

**BbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbB**

It was a few hours later and Gibson was just finishing something that would hopefully help Chiro out.

"There! It's finished." Stated the blue monkey, holding up some strange device for the team to see.  
"Oh wow!! It looks so cool Gibson!!" Shouted Otto.  
"…Uhh, what is it?"

Of coarse, just like Otto to compliment something before knowing what it was.

"It is the speech modifier were going to put on Chiro so we can understand just what exactly his vocal chords wish to per-"  
"Uhh Gibson? I'm losin' ya; bring it back into english, please?" Nova interrupted, a little exasperated. He glared.  
"It's a translator for Chiro."  
"Now see," Sprx offered, "was that so hard, Brainiac?"  
"I told you not to-"  
"Hu-hmm" It was Antauri this time, "Gibson, are you sure Chiro will even know what to say?"

"Yeah, he could still all monkey-like and stuff!" Otto shouted; the team shushed him for fear of waking the sleeping monkey not far from them on a medical table.

"Chiro being 'all monkey-like and stuff'," Gibson air-quoted, "as you so quaintly put it Otto was only a temporary side-effect of his unexpected transformation. His brain-wave pattern was momentarily launched into his simian form's memories from the past and, at the same time, causing amnesia to the present events taking place. Now, after I've run scans on his mind, I've come to find that he has now returned to his normal state of brain activity." At the others confused faces-sans Antauri-Gibson gave a worn out sigh and spoke deadpan, "Chiro's back to normal save for his appearance and speech."

Everyone-again excluding Antauri-threw understanding and relieved looks upon their faces knowing that Chiro was ok… for the most part.

"Gibson," Nova spoke, a little fearful, "what are those little needles at the end of the cords on the translator for?" Everyone else gave confused and questioning faces. What _were_ those needles for?

"Well," He started, "In order for the translator to receive Chiro's thoughts, these tiny connectors will have to be implanted in the back of his skull where the speaking section of the brain resides for his speech to be transmitted." Again, a few complicated words, but everyone understood the basic meaning.

"It's not going to hurt him, is it?" Nova's voice once again broke the silence in the room.  
"No, as long as he stays asleep for a few more seconds."

-_Bang! Bang! Bang!_

Throwing an irritated glance towards the green monkey, who created the loud banging in the first place, Gibson questioned as calmly as he could.

"Otto,"  
"Yeah?"  
"What, prey tell, was that banging for?!"Otto gave his reply with his famous goofy grin.  
"Oh that, just knocking on some metal so you don't jinx us about Chiro."

Luckily for them knocking on metal seemed to work; Chiro stayed within his slumber as Gibson inserted the transmitters into Chiro's skull. About a minute later, their monkified leader awoke to the gaze of five robotic eyes staring curiously at him.

"Uhh, guys? What are you staring at me for?"

Something wasn't right. He talked, he knew he did, but felt no words leave his mouth. Plus, he noted, his voice had this strange after-effect to it: something close to metallic or robotic.

"Why does my voice sound so different?"  
"Chiro?" Antauri questioned, "Do you remember anything from earlier?"

Chiro took on a thoughtful look as he recounted.

"It was Otto's turn, he rolled, the piece moved, and suddenly, I felt weird. Then this pain started in my lower back," He went to rub that spot but halted when he felt something twitch…

… something furry…

Sharply turning his head, Chiro came face-to-face with his… tail?

"What the-" he quickly took off his glove and beheld not a hand, but a paw.  
"What happened to me?"  
Otto caught a guilty look on his face.  
"That.. that was my fault. I'm sorry, Chiro. I-I-I didn't know the game was going to turn you into a monkey!-"

Before Otto could continue, Chiro stopped him by holding up his hand.. paw and spoke assuredly, a kind look on his face, "Don't worry Otto, I'm not mad at you. If I have to be mad at anything for me being like this it's that stupid game. Now, what's up with the fact that I'm talking… yet not talking?" "That would be my doing." Gibson interjected, "We knew we wouldn't understand much of your dead dialog, so I installed a universal device into your cerebrum that uses near microscopic transmitters in order to turn what you think into the English version of what you say." Chiro put on a confused face, which actually looked adorable, considering his current monkey form.

"That little box around your neck allows us to understand what your saying without the monkey chatter." Sprx deadpanned.

"Ohh." Now the monkified leader understood; Gibson just folded his arms and huffed.

"Well," Antauri intervened, "It's getting late and if we want this all to end we are going to need all the rest we can acquire, so we're done for the night. Let's just eat dinner and head to bed."

At everyone's agreeing nod, the monkey team began to leave to med bay in order to fill their bellies and get some much-needed shut-eye.

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As Nova laid in her bed, she stared off at the flower in the vase on the table next to her. She asked Gibson to scan and make sure it needed water like other flowers and found it does so she immediately placed it where she could see it whenever she wanted.  
_'Hopefully... one day... it won't be on the cheek...'_ With that, and a small mischievous smirk, she closed her eyes and drifted to her dreams.

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A/N: ****Sorry I haven't updated in such a long while!! I might not get to update soon either with all the exams and a trip I'm going on the day after school gets out and I won't come back until June 9th (I think)! Anyone out there who still wants to do fanart, I got one person, but I wouldn't mind more offers! ; P  
****Type to ya later!!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:**** Ok, I'm back!! The ride home SUCKED! We were delayed in Edinburgh (sp?) and had to stay in a hotel in New York that night because of a HUGE storm the night before in New York, meaning I didn't get home until the tenth and have been recuperating from the time changes and the trip all together! My GOSH time changes SUCK TOO! N-e-way, now on with the story, in which this chappie is dedicated to leavingyouforme for being just SO AWESOME. I think the next chappie will as well.**

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Chapter 7: Snakes in The Grass; Trees Have Their Thorns/End of the First Round

It was morning now as two black eyes squinted open to face the hard day ahead. With a yawn, Gibson slowly made his way out of his bed and left his room.

_'I need to check on Chiro. His condition should've stayed normal but when has anything EVER stayed normal in this team?'_

The blue monkey chuckled a bit at his own thought, but stopped when his leader's automatic doors opened to reveal an empty bed.

"Chiro?" He called quietly, "Chiro, if this is a trick, it's not funny! I need to run a scan to see if everything's running smoothly from your changes—wait a minute."

Taking a closer look at the bed, Gibson noticed that not only was the bed empty of one monkey-boy leader, but of one pillow and blanket as well.

"Well, if that's not odd." Setting his sights around the room, the blue simian found what could only be described as, well, as Nova might say, the most adorable scene anyone could behold. There, up in the rafters, or the tubes in the ceiling (whatever) was Chiro, left arm and leg dangling off the tube and uncovered by the blanket, and snoring softly. Covering his mouth, Gibson had to use every ounce of self-control he had in order not to laugh or make any sound what so ever. He hadn't even realized how long he was staring until Chiro's door was opened once again, causing him to look behind and see Sprx standing there. Gibson shushed as fast as he could in order not to wake their furry leader and Sprx nodded, seconds away from bursting into laughter.

Suddenly, Sprx's face showed one of an idea forming and he quickly yet quietly strode up and over to Chiro's side

"Hey Gibson, you wanna teach _and_ have some fun at the same time?"…

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Now everyone was outside, Dujunji resting on he forest floor and Nova reluctantly holding the dice in her hand.

"I'm not sure I wanna roll. I have this bad feeling about it."  
"Nova, we must continue on and finish the game, despite it's challenges."  
"But-"  
"You know Antauri's right Nova."  
"But the last time someone rolled, you went from boy to chimp!"  
"Ahem, actually we're of the simian species." Gibson interjected.  
"No wait, I think Nova's right," Sprx said, "the game's been targeting _you_ a lot, kid."

"I have noticed that as well, Sprx, and it boggles my mind as to why. I mean, first the tiger quickly changes targets from Sprx to you, then the hunter, and now Otto's turn effecting your whole appearance!" Gibson continued on, bemused.

"You think Dujunji just doesn't like him?" Otto asked innocently.

"Perhaps," Antauri answered, "But we're not returning home any sooner with 'what if's and other theories-"  
"Hey, where'd Chiro go?" Nova interrupted.

The team looked around, but only Gibson and Sprx turned their heads in the right direction: up.

"There's the kid." Sprx pointed up in one of the branches of a tree. Everyone turned and, sure enough, there he was, dangling by his tale, giving a sheepish grin once all eyes were on him.  
"Heh heh…just thought I'd…hang around?" He tried, putting an arm behind his head.  
"Chiro.." Antauri warned in what sounded like a…fatherly tone?  
"Ok, ok." His swung as his tail let go of the branch, and, having performed a bodily 360, he landed on all four paws.

"Wow," Otto said with astonishment, "You gotta teach me how to do that!"  
"Otto, you _already_ know how to do that, you've done it a million times before." Gibson spoke, annoyed.  
"Wow, you've kept count?!"  
"Ooohhh!" Gibson slapped his face.  
"Ok, ok! If I've gotta roll, I guess I'd better do it now before Sprx joins this stupid conversation."  
"Hey!"

Nova rolled the dice and ended with a twelve, just like Otto, and got some praise just as Otto did, and then read her rhyme.

_**Their squeezes are forceful,  
**__**their strikes are quick.  
**__**If you stay where you are,  
**__**your heads must be thick.**_

"Hey! Who's this game callin' thick-headed?!" Sprx said indignantly.

"We need to move team, now!" But it was too late. The next thing Antauri felt was a serpent's jaws on his shoulder and a tight squeeze that wrecked his jetpack and nearly blew his circuits.

**"AAHHH!"**

"Antauri!!" Chiro suddenly jumped into action against the team's newest foes: snakes. They were of the same color as the tiger. He quickly and mercilessly attacked the snake holding his mentor; he bit, scratched (which really didn't do anything due to the gloves), and thrashed at it until it couldn't take anymore and realized its prey wasn't worth this and let go, battered and bruised.

Antauri lay on the floor for only a moment then got back up, thanking his friend, though somewhat surprised.  
"You're shoulder ok?"  
"Good enough to fight with, at least."

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Meanwhile, with Sprx and Nova in the circle of snakes...

"Uach, and I thought the circus snake was creepy." Nova said, scooting closer to Sprx, hands out put in front of her defensively.  
"I know what you mean."  
"What are _you_ talkin' about, you had a crush on her!"  
"Hey! That was before I knew she was a snake thing. And besides, you and I both know you're the only girl for me."  
"Sprx, now is not the time for impossible theories." She quickly bashed a snake that got too close.

"Sprx! Nova!" Both turned their heads up to see Chiro swinging by his tail towards them, his arms outstretched. Both got the idea and held their arms up as well, effectively getting them out of the serpent circle and onto the ground below.

"Thanks kid!"  
"No prob."

"Uhh, you guys." All turned to see Otto, Gibson, and Antauri a little freaked out, and seeing the snakes clued the rest of the team as to why.

They had two heads.

"Umm," Otto continued nervously, "turns out.. when you cut their heads off, more heads grow instead."

"We need to make an escape an plan for this elsewhere." Antauri stated, slashing at another snake, only to have two heads grow in place.

"Antauri's right team, make your way to the jungle, maybe we can run away fast enough to get them off our tails!"

With that, and _another _swipe by Otto at the snakes blocking their path, everybody ran into the jungle, hoping to lose the snakes along the way, although with the serpents' instincts helping them, it would be very difficult; Chiro was taking up the rear while Otto helped Antauri run if needed. After about ten minutes, and not getting any closer to being free of these reptiles, Chiro believed a new plan was needed.

"We have to think of something else." He huffed in-between breaths with his real mouth, but his communicator allowed him complete sentences when he spoke, his tail twitching.

"I don't know…about you," Nova huffed as well, "but… I'm starting to…get _really_ peeved!"

_**Bang!**_

Chiro came to a screeching halt and barely avoided having his nose blown off by the bullet that went striking past him…but his halt turned was a mistake because now _two_ heads gripped both his shoulders with their powerful jaws while starting to wrap around the monkey-boy.

"Didn't think you'd see US again, did you, little monkey brat?! HA!" The owner of the voice and of the bullet came out of the shadows to reveal himself.

"Notrav." Nova said darkly. Now she was officially _over_ peeved and now just plain _**mad **_and Chiro getting the life squeezed out of him wasn't helping her calm down any.

"Otto was right," Chiro stated through his communicator, "Dujunji hates me." He was running out of air, fast.

"I'll let my serpents do the nasty part of the job and do the fun part myself."  
"Oh, and just what is that, you air-headed lunatic?!"  
"Nova.." But she just acted like she didn't hear the second-in-command.  
"Why skin him, of coarse. I need a new pelt in my closet, and I have yet to poses monkey fur."

**"AAHH!"**

That was enough for Nova.

With her screech, she leapt to the back of the group and attacked Chiro's snake, savagely ripping it off her leader; Chiro took in as much air as he needed and coughed roughly. With another yell, Nova threw the serpent and hit Notrav square in the gut causing the force to blow both of them back and out of their sights.

"**LADY TOMAHAWK!!"**

Now her attention went towards the remaining limbless foes, which now seemed a little scared of the yellow monkey; her fists hit the ground with as much force as she could muster, causing a huge crack in the earth that was heading straight for them. The quake reached its target and the serpents fell to their death below.

Nova, breathing heavily and deactivating her fists, stared on where her attack was directed for a few seconds before going over to Chiro to check on him.

"I'm fine now thanks to you, Nova."

She scoffed teasingly, all anger leaving her.

"Of coarse, you guys wouldn't last a second without me." She said, pointing to herself. Chiro played along a smiled a toothy grin.

"We know it."

A scream interrupted their playful banter and caused them to run to the source in haste, only to find a disturbing sight.

There was Notrav, the most skilled hunter in Dujunji forest, crying and screaming as if he were a three year old; the snake Nova threw earlier a few feet from him. He had landed near what looked to be the oldest trees in the whole jungle. Notrav looked pained and pale and had what looked to be orange thorns sticking out of his back; the snake did as well, but it wasn't awake.

"PLEASE!! YOU HAVE TO… TO GET ME OUT OF HERE!! I'M BEGGING…" He kept huffing and hiccuping in fear, "BEGGING… BEGGING YOU!! I CAN'T MOVE!! PLEASE… HELP ME!!"

"Why?" Nova interjected, fury filling her system once more, "So you can hunt Chiro some more?!"

"N-N-NO!! JUST PLEASE!!" Now he was sweating profusely and seemed to puke at any moment…

but he'd never get the chance…

Without warning orange roots came out of the ground and tightly wrapped around the hunter and serpent, immediately pulling them into the earth despite the screaming protests of Notrav.

"NO!! HELP ME!!"

"Hold on." Antauri jumped to the head of the team and tried to make a grab for the hunter but an odd thing happened…

the trees came to life and shot the same spikes imbedded in Notrav's back at the team.

"Hyperforce! Move!" Chiro commanded. Antauri quickly retreated to the others and they all jumped back opposite Notrav's position.

"PLEASE!! I DON'T WANT TO BE EATEN ALIVE, **PLEASE!!"**

But they could do nothing but watch as Notrav's pleas were silenced as he slowly sunk into the ground, the serpent disappearing along with him. All was quiet, the team staring on in shock at what they witnessed as Gibson spotted a nearby thorn stuck in the ground. Ripping it away from the earth, he tucked it away in a subspace pocket held within his drills meant for storage. It'd be safe and examined by him later.

**BbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbBbB**

Later on in the Super Robot, all were assembled, wondering about the scene they'd witnessed not but a few hours ago.

"What'd you get from that spike, Gibson?" Chiro asked.

"Nothing good, that's for sure. It seems there's a rare poison that inject itself into the victim once the thorn makes contact with flesh." He turned on the main monitor and a

3-D version of a blocky person came up; his organs visible through his skin.

"I've put up a simulator of the poison's deadly path if it were to enter any one of us."

With that, he pressed a button and a red liquid entered the choppy 3-D person. At a snail's pace it seemed that one by one the organs and limbs would turn a light purple for all of five minutes before suddenly changing a solid red; almost a crimson—or blood red—color.

"As you can see, not only does it paralyze the body's external features, such as the arm or leg, but it paralyzes the inner system as well, including the lungs and heart. This is the closest to a match as to how it will flow; somewhere from one to two minutes on the outer body and thirty to forty-five minutes for the inner organs, it really depends on where the spike makes its impact, but in the end, I suspect we'd die from the suffocation of our lungs being shut down rather than of heart failure, or if we're anywhere near the trees, face the same fate as Notrav and the snake accompanying him. I will work on some sort of antidote in the event that one of us gets impaled with these lethal thorns."

"So in short, we got to keep our distance from these trees?" Sprx once again deadpanned.

"How will we even know which trees will be the deadly, spike-shooters?" Otto asked, worry engraved onto his features.

"I noticed that _these_ trees had a root color that allows it to stick out from the rest," Gibson explained, "just be careful of the trees with orange roots and everyone should b just fine."

"Just in case, though," Chiro intervened in a commanding voice, "No one is to go in the forest alone, everybody's got to have somebody, no excuses."

"Looks like we'll be spending some close bonding time in the days to come."

_**Clang!**_

"…Oww."

"I'm going to bed now, night!"

Nova's got the right idea." Antauri spoke wisely.

"You mean _aside_ from knocking Sprx off his proverbial rocker?" Gibson asked, both him, Chiro, and Otto snikering; the only rebuttal beings Sprx's grumbling as he sttod himself back up.

"We must rest up for the night and hope to complete more turns in the folling days to come." Antauri continued, ignoring Gibson's remark.

"I fear we are taking too long with just one turn a day."

"He's right, guys," Chiro stated as his real monkey-mouth yawned, "Let's just hit the hay and hope to make better progress in the morning."

And with that, all monkeys went to their quarters in hope of a good night's sleep…

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A/N:**ALRIGHT!! ANOTHER CHAPPIE DOWN HERE! I'M SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY ON THIS STORY, I just hate to keep you guys waiting for it cause then… well, I'm just keeping you guys waiting, and that just makes me feel bad.**

**Hoped you like my carnivorous trees with their deadly, poisonous, paralyzing thorns/spikes!! Lol. I also have a little surprise about the game in the next chapter so I hope to get that up soon! And don't worry, you'll find out what Sprx and Gibson did in the beginning soon enough (hopefully in the next chappie, when I've figured out what all they're gonna do,lol).**

**Type to ya later and R&R please! **

**P.S. Still waiting for fan-art ppls to volunteer! :3**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: ****I don't own the Super Robot or the robot monkeys OR Chiro, but I DO own the current plot and all the challenges and the villains in said challenges. I AM SOOOO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING THE REST OF THE SUMMER!! I FEEL ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE FOR MAKING ALL YOU WONDERFUL READERS WAIT FOR ME AND MY LAZY-ASS!! I'll try to be quicker with my updates, I promise!! On the bright side, however, I decided to let you guys read about Gibson and Sprx's time with their sleeping leader, even though I don't think it funny in the slightest. Still, I guess I tried my hardest and best to make it at least slightly amusing.****The italics are are people speaking the video-feed.  
****Read and enjoy! And review as well, of coarse lol.**

**Chapter 8: The Prank That Wet Down With A THUD!!**

* * *

It was early in the morning when Antauri came online, although not looking forward to the day ahead. Quickly getting out of his recharge bed, he made his way out of his room towards the main command center. He halted, however, when a peculiar sound reached his audio receptors. He continued down his intended path, where the sound was originating from as well, and stopped right at the door. Listening closely, he discovered it was the sound of…snickering? Listening on, the silver monkey heard what sounded like audio from some sort of player or communication in the background.

"Honestly Sprx, the video isn't as funny as you're making it out to be." Antauri heard a voice say. From he sound of it, he knew it was Gibson and, obviously, Sprx was in there too.

"Aww, come on Gibson. You should be taking notes on how to be as funny as me. Shuggazoom knows your performance in _this_ wasn't."

"And what performance, may I ask, is the one _you_ are speaking of?" Antauri questioned as he suddenly stepped into the command center; he put on a stern face as Sprx began to speak.

"Oh-oh-oh hey Antauri, what's, he eh, wha-what's up?" He stuttered nervously, "We were just ah…." He tried to think of an excuse.

"Just _**what**?"_ Antauri used that tone that silently spoke 'don't lie to me'. Sprx gave a sigh.

"Might as well show him." And with that, Gibson pressed the repeat button; not noticing another certain monkey who just woke up and walked in…

&

"_Ok I got my eyecam set up. Start now." _The screen came to life, showing Gibson standing on top of the rafters, a sleeping monkey leader inches behind him. Gibson didn't look amused.

_"Really Sprx, I don't see the humor in all this. How can stating facts about the simian species while a simian is asleep be funny?"_

"_Cause you're supposed to mess with him while you state your facts." _Gibson raised an eyebrow, sighed, and began.

"_Well, the average simian IQ is 174 and can usually weigh up to 100 pounds or 45kgs." _Gibson now began slowly poking his leader as he continued speaking.

_"There is an estimation of 125 different species of monkey and none of them have any patience."_

_"Whoa.."_

"_Yes I know. We are quite fascinating."_

"_No, that's not it. It's just no one but you can ruin a perfect opportunity for an awesome prank like this."_

The blue monkey face faltered and looked at him, bemused.

_"I mean, c'mon, isn't there anything funny you can say?"_

"_Well, the monkey's tails average a length of three feet and," _He actually looked like he was going to burst out laughing, _"Monkeys not only yawn when they're tired, but when they're mad as well!" _He giggled uncontrollably…

All was silent when he finished.

"_Oh, for the love of nebula you're hopeless. Here, switch with me." _The other huffed, but complied and set up his own eyecam, the screen as a result buzzing for a moment or two, before Sprx was seen picking up the top half of Chiro, who remained in his deep sleep; picking up both arms, he started swinging them wildly while making light 'oo-oo' and 'aa-aa' monkey sounds.

_"Oh. Look at me. I'm the leader of the hyperforce. Oo-oo aa-ah! And I like to pick my nose! Haha!"_ To prove his point, he took Chiro's finger and shoved it as far up the boy's nose as he could, giggling the entire time.

_"Uuuggghhh, Sprx! That's disgusting!"_

_"Ooo! I just got a great idea! Do you know if Nova's got any make-up? Or Jinmay?!"_

_"And why, prey tell, would Nova have the need for cosmetics when she has fur? Jinamy does not need the use of beauty products. She knows Chiro finds her pretty already. Why do you ask such questions with obvious answers?"_

_"Oh, no reason."_ He answered, an evil smile that spoke mischief covering his features; Gibson quickly caught the idea.

_"Ok, that's it. Operation: 'Incredibly Stupid' is officially over. Put Chiro down and let's just leave."_

_"What! When there's plenty more humiliating things to do? No way!"_

The camera started getting closer, meaning that Gibson was walking over. Two arms came from below the camera and grabbed Chiro's arm, effectively pulling his hand out of his nose.

_"Put him down Sprx."_ You could hear the commanding tone he took on.

_"What if I don't want to,_ **brain-strain**?" Sprx said with a jerk of Chiro's other arm and a challenging smirk.

_"Then I'll make you,_ **Sparky**." He retorted with a jerk of his own, causing Sprx's smirk to give way to a frown at the hated nickname. A tug-o-war ensued with numerous shouts and insults.

How the slumbering monkey in their arms was still slumbering through all of this was surprising to Antauri, though he didn't let it show.

It seemed both the red and blue teammates forgot just what they were originally fighting over and started attacking each other, if the camera suddenly jolting from left to right and Sprx on top were any indication. Gibson raised his fist in order to Sprx off of him and. . .

**THUD!!**

The tug-o-war came to a sudden halt. All movement stilled as shock came over Sprx's face, and most likely Gibson's as well since he couldn't be seen.

_"Please tell me that wasn't what I assume it was."_ The blue one spoke, staying still and having a sense of dread carry in his tone.

Without a word, the red simian looked over to the side and he winced, making the answer obvious.

_"Wish I could."_ Both jumped from their spot and approached their fallen, and yet sleeping, leader. Everything seemed to check out just fine as Gibson gave a sigh of relief.

_"Well, he seems ok."_

_"What about **us** though?!"_ Sprx's face showed panic as well as voice spoke it,

_"Someone had to have heard that!"_

Minutes later, both seemed to get the same idea; they nodded to each other, making the visual slide down in a nodding movement, and in-acted possibly the smartest move they had thought of together since coming in here.

They picked their leader's body off the floor, turned on their jet-packs in silent mode, flew up to the rafters, placed Chiro's sleeping body back in its original position, and flew for all their worth out of the room. Sprx turned at one corner, meaning he zipped into his quarters, and the eyecam showed Gibson's.

&

The screen then went fuzzy, proving the end of the two's failed prank. Nervous about his reaction, both turned back to Antuari, nervous smiles upon their faces, only to be met with something different, and all the more scary.

"I could've planned it **way** better than that!" Nova said with much confidence, crossing her arms in the process.

Yes, it seems that Antauri wasn't the only one in the room anymore. No, the entire TEAM was now in the command center, including…

Chiro…

He had what could be the maddest face a cute monkey such as him could pull off, but still, it was pretty intimidating to the duo; you could practically see the steam coming out of his ears.

"Geez!" Otto said with a bright smile on his face,

"And you think **I'm** the dumb monkey! Haha!!" He then fell flat on his back and continued his uncontrollable laughter and giggles.

Both paid the green mechanic no mind as they continued to watch their leader with fright.

He approached them on all fours, slowly, yawning as he did so, proving his anger—according to the facts Gibson spoke earlier—and made sure to tower over them when he finally came to a halt.

"You guys are gonna get it." That was all that was said; in truth, that was all that needed to be said because Gibson and Sprx bolted when the sentence was finished, Chiro screeching like the monkey he currently was and chasing after them.

**A/N: Well, I hope you liked what you read. I know it was short an' all, but it was the best I could come up with so don't bite my head off please! I hope to update again real soon, tomorrow even. Anything to make it up to you guys!**

**Review please! No flames either!! Oh, and in an added note, I honestly don't know exactly HOW many chapters this story is gonna be, but I bet if I went over my plot outline, I'd be able to figure it out.**

**I figured I got their-Sprx and Gibson's-personalities just right. I mean, c'mon, we all know they couldn't last long working together on anything!**


	9. Chapter 9

********

Disclaimer:

**I don't own the Super Robot or the robot monkeys OR Chiro, but I DO own the current plot and all the challenges and the villains in said challenges. I'm so sorry that I'm taking such a long time to update between chappies and such! I hope you guys can forgive-AND NOT KILL!!-me. Sorry to also say that this will be a two parter too, holding both Gibson and Sprx's turns in one day. I think ppl will be pleased with Sprx's turn though (the end of it anyway, lol). **

**

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**

Chapter 9: Two Amazing Turns and Great Discoveries Abound-Part 1

It took at least an hour to get Chiro to calm down long enough to stop chasing the two pranking monkeys and-hopefully-continue their game. It didn't stop Chiro, however, from giving the two the most revenge-promising glare he could muster with his adorable blue eyes. After that it took at least another twenty minutes to find where the game had landed during his chase; apparently when you're an angry simian chasing others, things (or fellow monkeys) aren't put on the 'watch out for or don't crash into' list. Otto's bruised up body and throbbing headache was proof of that (he didn't seem to get out of the way much).

Now everyone was sitting inside a cave they found a little deeper in the forest, but thankfully not too far away from the robot or anywhere near the poisonous man-eating trees. Gibson had the dice and was rolling for his second turn.

"OK then, let's start, shall we?" With that, he tossed the dice into the air and onto the board, the sound of the two little cubes hitting the wood the only sound heard echoing through the near-empty cavern. He rolled a three.

"Drat! I expected a higher number."

"It's ok Gibson. You gotta have skill at playing games…like I do." Sprx put a thumb to his chest, closing his eyes and smiling smugly.

_**Clank!!**_

"Ow. What was that for?" He turned to Nova but was surprised to see her shake her head with a snickering smile.

"Wasn't me."

"Then who…" He turned his head in the other direction to see his leader twiddling his thumbs, whistling and acting innocent, not meeting his friend's black orbs but instead looking to the ceiling as if it were the most interesting thing in the cave. He soon brought his eyes down, though, to give a smirk and shrug his shoulders.

"What?"  
"Ha ha, very funny, kid."  
"HEY GUYS! Look at the board!!"

All eyes suddenly turned to stare down at the Dujunji board in wonder and awe.

Gibson's piece was moving in a new and odd fashion contrary to its old pattern. It looked to be shaking at first and now the wood seemed to be cracking until finally, wood was blown in a small explosion; the team protected their faces from any straying wood, and removed their arms to something astounding.

The blue mechanic's Dujunji piece had come to life.

It was now a real miniature blue hawk; real sapphire feathers decorating its wings—flapping them once or twice in order to stretch them before looking up at each team member in turn before finally resting its gaze on its game partner, Gibson. It squawked at him loudly with its equally sapphire blue beak, causing him to jump a little in surprise.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Gibson cautiously brought his hand to rest at the hawk's feet as an invite to climb on. Staring briefly with its jet black eyes—but not hesitating—the hawk filled out the unspoken request and jumped onto his hand, allowing him to bring the tiny animal up for closer inspection; Antauri didn't fail to notice how the instant the game piece left it space on the board, how said space turned black, the silver monkey only guessing that it was meant to keep track of where it was.

"Huh. So you can leave the board now. Most interesting."  
"_Squawk!!"  
_"Oh what, now our own game pieces can leave the game and attack us?!" Sprx questioned, yelling somewhat.  
"I do not believe that is their purpose, Sprx." The team's second-in-command stated calmly.  
"Oh yeah? Then what is it then?"  
"I'm not sure, but I'm almost positive it's not as a means to harm us in anyway."  
"Maybe the game just wants us to be closer to our animal pieces?" It sounded more like a question than a statement.  
"COOL! DOES THIS MEAN THAT _ALL _OF OUR ANIMALS WILL COME TO LIFE?!"

"More than likely Otto, yes, though I fail to see the logic in bringing our pieces to life other than Nova's suggestion. Although, that seems to have some flaws as well, but it's the closest reasoning I can gather."

"Uhh…I think I'm close enough to my animal piece, thanks." Chiro said a little bluntly to his teammates.

Before another word could be spoken, the mini-hawk suddenly jumped from Gibson's palm, gliding down to the board below with another loud squawk and landing on its previous space, everyone else no noticing the space going from black back to blue. The animal then spread its wings open, hopping the three spaces as was rolled via its partner's roll. When it was done, it folded its wings back into position and sat down on its space, awaiting the rhyme that was undoubtedly to follow; Gibson read aloud.

_**With an eight foot wingspan,  
**__**and being three times your size,  
**__**this age-old bird,  
**__**thinks you all a meaty prize.**_

All stared at the poem, anxiety welling up from their hearts when a sudden thunderous screech forced the team to cover their ears in pain.

"What is THAT?!" Nova cried over the strident sound.

Her question was answered when a mild earthquake seemed to knock everyone off their knees. The team looked out to see two giant reptilian feet, soon coupled with another set of what were presumed to be talon-like hands; whatever it was, it was obviously trying to sneak a peek at the cave's current residences. The hyperforce gasped.

It was definitely reptilian, if it's skin's appearance was anything Gibson had to go by, and webbed feet; giant wings attached from its arms to its legs, making it seem as if a sheet was tied to its appendages; the head resembled a triangle, only instead of sharp corners, the base was rounded, leading down to an extremely long beak. It stared at the monkey team in huger and let loose another shriek, revealing tiny, and yet very sharp looking, teeth and saliva dripping from its jaws.

"Something tells me that that thing wants us to come out, but not to play."

"Really, Otto? I thought it'd want us to go have a tea party!!"

"Sprx! Now is not the time to be bickering at each other! Gibson, can you identify this creature?" Antauri had to dodge a swipe of the monster's jaws as it stuck its elongated mouth into the cave and was now trying to score a meal: namely, the hyperforce.

"Not really. I've read up on some interstellar planets in my spare time, so I know that this happens to be an ancient species from a planet called Earth!" He avoided being munched on while speaking, but with difficulty; there was little space for the team to jump and evade with without bumping into each other or being eaten.

"Yeah? What else?!" Chiro yelled.

"Well, I believe they're called Pterodactyls: known as a dinosaur from a 'pre-historic age' and…they eat fish and small mammals!"

"Whew!" Otto sighed in relief, before putting on a bemused look, "What are mam-maa-meals?!"

If not for their lives being in peril, Gibson—not to mention the rest of the team—would've smacked their faces with their hands.

"NO OTTO, YOU EMPTY-HEADED GOOFBALL! **WE'RE** SMALL MAMMALS!!"

…

"OH! THAT'S REAL BAD!!"

The creature's mouth lunged towards the middle of the cavern…

And straight for the game.

"Quick! Grab Dujunji before that dact-whatever eats it!"

Sprx, being the closest, was the only one who could snag it up in time.

"I'm on it!"

It was a close call, but with a tuck 'n' roll, the red monkey escaped by the tip of his tail: literally.

"YEE-OW!!" sitting far enough into the cave at a certain angle, he was safe to attend to his poor nipped tail, at first remaining oblivious to the hawk's calls for his attention.

Not five minutes later, though, he realized that the blue game piece was squawking for him to look down. Turning questioning eyes, Sprx noticed the hawk shoving the dice in his direction.

"You think taking my turn will actually HELP the situation?! Are you nuts?!" But still, the hawk continued its efforts, and added with the continuous screeching of the much larger dino-whats-it wasn't helping the matter; finally, he gave in and stretched his hand out.

"Alright, fine! Gimmie the dice!"

"AHH!!"  
"GIBSON!!"

Sprx, just as he was gonna take his turn, turned his head to discover that the overgrown chicken had somehow gotten a hold of the blue scientist's lower half and was now taking his head out of the cavern, the monkey team rushing after in order to save their friend and fellow teammate. Sprx, in his haste to help, didn't notice how he just half-hazardly threw the game pieces to the ground…and how he happened to roll a twelve…

The battle outside the cavern was scattered, to say the least. Green disks and flame from Otto and Nova shooting into the sky, barely any managing to hit their target as it flew in all directions—effectively turning this part of the forest into a clearing, lightening spears from Chiro and a purple Antauri trying to reach where they thought the Pterodactyl would be next, and a flailing blue simian (Gibson, duh! lol) trying to drill into said dinosaur's mouth in order to be released from its jaws, which were really starting to hurt; in less than a second, Sprx had his magnets out an' ready to rumble.

"MAGNA-TINGLER BLAST!"

It was a direct hit to the head, and—along with the added attacks from its captive—forced Gibson out of the bird's clutches and dropped safely in the company of his teammates (Antauri caught him).

"Yeah! Take that, you bald sack 'a' ugly!" Sprx jeered.

Now the flying dino was hungry AND peeved. Turning its attention to what made him 'lose his lunch', so to speak, the dactyl swooped towards its new target: Sprx.

He discovered too little too late that the enemy was heading straight for him, and he was just a few inches away from the rest of the team, but just far enough away to know that no one could help him now…

…Or so he thought.

"SPRX! WATCH OUT!!" Before he knew it, he was shoved out of the way and down to the ground below. He got up as fast as he could and started to rush frantically to help the teammate who was being carried off to Shuggazoom knows where and who had taken his place as dinner for the colossal bird.

Suddenly, however, he was tackled by something… actually, some_things_, slamming his head into the ground with enough force to make him see stars; whatever was on top of hi continued its relentless assult on the poor monkey's back and he could swear he heard something to akin to screeching, of coarse with his mind being so fuzzy, it could've been the bird for all he knew.

Before his world went black, he used the remainder of his strength to utter the name of the brave friend who saved him from the quiet literal jaws of death…

"Nova…"

**

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******

A/N:

**Oooo! Left you guys with a cliffy! Haha! I'm so evil. Don't kill me though, or you guys wont get anymore updates. Yeah, think about that. 'Sides, I'd be able to beat you all down with my FRYING PAN OF DOOM!! (brings out humungous frying pan of supposed 'doom'). I'll try my hardest to update soon, but with my mom having forced me into like, seven clubs in high school, along with the added fact of any and all homework I might and will have, I'll be lucky to see the face of my computer for a while. Lol, you guys probably knew I was gonna do this to those two little lovebirds, huh? Well, most of you fans asked for it, so I gave it to you, and it's not done yet! X3 Till I post again, R&R please!**


	10. Intermission Message

Ok my faithful readers!! Do NOT worry! I am NOT dead and I have NOT given up on this story!!! I **am** trying my hardest to get to it and making it worth the read, but I have never written a good fight scene and I wish to for you. Not to mention me & my family have been kept busy even during this summer vacation.

Our schedule plus my trying to keep up with everything else that needs my attention has sadly also dwindled some of my obssession for this series. Like I said, I have **NOT** stopped nor given up on this story, but truthfully, I have started obssessing over another series or two in this abscence of writing. But what can I say, transformers are awesome! *is shot*

Ok ok I shouldn't have added that last part. But here's where I make this promise (and hope and pray to go through with it): My family and I are going to visit my sister on the 24th. She lives up in Seattle, so that means three plane rides up there and back. Add to the fact that I will most likely NEVER have internet while up there and that's a large amount of time with no internet to take my attention away. That means tons of time I can use to make even more than one chapter to add to Dujunji.

So now here's my promise. I promise that if I don't update this story BEFORE I leave for Seattle, I will update the as soon as I get back with (hopefully) more than one chapter. Plus, I have a drawing I made a while back that you all just might like. It will be posted after I get back as well.

I know you all hate me and want to shoot me for makin' it look like I've abandoned it, but be aware-I WILL bring this back up to speed!! Just............give me time. I HAVE NO RIGHT TO ASK FOR IT, BUT PLEASE GIVE ME JUST SOME TIME.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Two Amazing Turns and Great Discoveries Abound-Part 2**

* * *

"Is.....be all....."

"...a bum....ine."

"Hey! .....waking..!"

Sprx groaned as he come back to the waking world. What had happened? The last he could remember was--!

"NOVA!! AH!" He grasped his head in pain as it throbbed from his sudden jolt up.

"Careful you dunderhead! I just fixed that nasty bump on your head and now you're working to undo all of my work!" Even Sprx, as much as his head hurt, could recognize Gibson's voice reprimanding from his left. He turned to him.

"Nova!" He said, careful of his head this time, "Where is she?! What happened?!"

"She was taken by the flying creature, Sprx. There was nothing we could do."

"What do you mean 'nothing we could do?!"

"Well," Gibson interjected, "It's not like we could stop the creature with _these_ getting in the way." Sprx followed where the blue simian shoved his thumb and gaped.

"Uhhh....Why are there monkeys bowing down in front of me and holding my game piece to my face?"

-------------------------------&--------------------------------------

"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"HEY!! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TAKING ME?!! PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOW—OOPPHH!!"

Nova rubbed her now sore head from being dropped unceremoniously onto a hard, stickly surface. She growled underneath her breath and turned to the flying animal, intent on giving it a piece of her mind.

"HEY! WHAT'S THE BIG….idea…." Her words died on her lips until she clamped her mouth shut mutely, staring at the huge creature in wonder.

It was about 7 stories tall standing on its back feet. Its head was as round as a bowling ball and its beak extended so long it could practically reach any animal hidden within a small, narrow space. Its eyes were a jet black back with an emerald shard-like pupil that stared down at her with an undeniable hunger. Golden yellow extended from its head and beak, to its neck, down its chest, all over the inside of his wings, and onto its belly, with coffee brown on its back and back wings. Continuing to look down she noticed an unappealing color scheme develop as emerald lined its sharp talons.

Any words left in Nova's throat died as she set her face in worrying determination.

"Oh this isn't good." She took a fighting stance as the creature roared and dove for attack.

-------------------------------&--------------------------------------

Indeed there were three brown~furred monkeys, kneeling before him, and all Sprx could do was stare at his now living red elephant piece. It trumpeted and moved its head at him and he numbly held his hands out to take it.

"Apparently these monkeys are the result of your roll, Sprx. They were out of control until Chiro found that turning his vocalizer off and told them in native tongue who rolled them."

"Yeah," Chiro said, backing Gibson's claim, "looks like I'm their translator now. Oh and they say they're sorry for jumping repeatedly on your head after colliding with you." He couldn't hold back the snigger at the mental images of the three treating Sprx's head like a balloon house.

"Not funny." Quickly coming back to the situation, he started moving to leave. "Nova! We have to save her!"

"And we will, Sprx," Antauri assured, "once we come up with a plan."

"Ooo ooo ooo! Why not use your monkeys Sprx! I bet they could help!" Otto had grown attached quite quickly to the furry little devils, now swinging from the ceiling with them and Chiro; they had left their "master's" side once he accepted his elephant. They were swift to add to Otto's pleas with screeches of their own. Gibson covered his ears at the annoying sound.

"What on Shuggazoom are they saying?!"

"They wanna help their...," Chiro made a face, "master get his mate back from the flyer." Otto laughed at that.

Sprx, who was finding their chattering equally as annoying, finally gave them the ok and they cheered.

-------------------------------&--------------------------------------

"BOOM BOOM WAKA!"

Cracks tore through the ground below, only for the flyer to ascend to the sky and avoid the attack altogether and dive after its meal.

"Darn it!" Nova ran through the forest, using the trees as a cover. She had given the thing a good punch in the neak when it had dived to eat her in its nest, leaving it dazed and allowing Nova the chance to jet away. The creature only roared and flew after, and with one good swipe of its talons, skewered hdr jet pack and forcing her to crash land. Nothing she attacked him with seemed to be working now as it kept using the sky to dodge her every move. Not only that, but it was apparently strong enough to tear through the forest and make clearings where it continuously pecked and dove after her.

Continuing to run, she brought a hand up to her earpiece, only hoping that communication through teammates still worked.

-------------------------------&--------------------------------------

_"HELLO?!! SPRX! OTTO! ANTUARI! GIBSON! CHIRO! ANYBODY!!"_

"Nova!" Relief flooded the red monkey's voice at the radio comm. "Where are you? Are you alright?! Did that flying lizard hurt you?!"

_"LADY TOMAHAWK!- OH YEAH I'M FINE! SAVE FOR THE MONSTER **TRYING TO EAT ME HERE!!!** AHH!"_

The sound of trees tearing and screeching on the comm. sent everyone's nerves on edge.

**_"CAN I PLEASE GET SOME BACK UP HERE?!!"_**

Everyone would be relieved if she didn't sound so intimadating. The brown simians were currently hiding behind their master in fear of the voice that seem to come from the very walls.

"Yeah I know she scares me too."

**_"I HEARD THAT SPRX!"_** More destruction, _"AND EVEN THOUGH I'M HAPPY I CAN DO THAT TO YOU, I WOULD **REALLY **APPRECIATE SOME HELP!"_

"I've got her location, she's not too far from here."

"Good work Gibson! Ok monkey team, mobilize!"

-------------------------------&--------------------------------------

"OH COME ON! DO YOU REALLY WANNA EAT ME THAT BADLY?! WHY NOT GO AFTER GIBSON, HE'S THE ONE THAT ROLLED YOU!"

"RRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!"

"OH CRUD!" Jumping Nova just avoided the dactyle's beak. That did leave an opportunity to punch it once again in the face, this time near the eye, and took off back into the jungle.

"HA! TAKE THAT, WIERDO! WAHHH" Suddenly she found herself falling, only to have her quick reflexes latch onto a piece of rock. Realizing she accidenlty jumped from a tree to a canyon, she cursed to herself at the fact that now she was vulnerable to the Ptero-dactyle's advances. She desperately tried to climb back up to take cover, only to see the creature loom over her, a predatory~smirk of voctory in its eyes as its prey was now helpless to it.

"Oh man! I'm gonna wind up as this things lunch!"

"_Not if I got anything to say about it!"_ And to her surprise, Nova saw Fist Rocket 4, Gibson's rocket, and the brain scrambler, Antauri's rocket, shooting at the creature. Soon the others came into view, fighting to keep Nova from the things beak.

"Alright! You guys made it!"

"What you thought we wouldn't?" Came a cocky voice as a red magnet came to her level from Sprx's ship. She happily let herself get magnatized and lifted near the rocket's hatch.

"I don't think I've ever been so happy to see you guys!"

"Same can be said from us Nova." Chiro called from his tank.

**"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"**

All turned to see the pissed off Ptero-dactyle diving for Sprx's ship, intending to claim its long-overdue meal. Nova, needing to use her hands to undue the latch and make sure the wind wouldn't blow her off, was defenseless. Everyone called her name worringly, thinking she would be done for; she, thinking the same, closed her eyes and gripped to the ship tightly, waiting for doom. But it never came.

"Huh?" She opened her eyes and gasped in slight horror and surprise to see the monster not chewing on her, but instead on Sprx's own magnet, which he, using the ship's manuverability, shoved in its mouth. After tearing precious components and wires, the dactyle spit it out in disgust. Nova just sat there on the hull, dumbstruck.

"Open....the hatch..."

Sprx pained request woke her from her stupor, and had her quickly doing as told, only to be surprised again at seeing three brown blurrs jumping out and latching themselves onto their foe, screeching and scratching, and then some.

"What the!"

"We'll tell ya later, now climb in." She quickly did so, closing the hatch behid her.

The monster continued to fight with the monkies currently attacking it, able to shake one off, having it land in the forest below, and quickly doing the same with the other two. The brown simians, now realizing they were no match for the creature, whimpered and ran farther into the forest, hoping to save their own skins.

"Yeah..." Sprx stated weakly, "Some help they were."

"They gave Nova time to escape, that's all we asked of them."

"Yeah yeah I know Antauri."

The battle raged on, but in the end the monkey team claimed victory as soon, the dactyle realized that no amount of food was worth the trouble it was being given and so flew off in search of other morsels to pray upon...

-------------------------------&--------------------------------------

Once Gibson had tended to Sprx's wound and reattached his fixed magnet, Nova walked over to him. Everyone else had left the room at the look she gave them, leaving just her and the red monkey alone.

"Sprx…" Nova began, sitting next to him, "What you did… I mean.. giving up one of your magnets.. just to save me.. well. . . I know how much you treasure 'em an' all…so.. just… thanks."

She blushed lightly and looked down. Sprx went from surprised to a soft smile.

"Hey," he spoke softly, using his good hand to cup her chin and make her look into his eyes, her blush deepening as he did so, "my magnets are one thing. You, on the other hand, are on a whole 'other level. You mean a lot to me Nova—more than anything in the world, and I'd do anything to keep you safe from harm."

Her eyes were misty as her face spoke awe and Nova gave him a fierce hug. When she pulled back, their faces were only inches apart. If you listened closely, you could here both monkeys' hearts beating erratically at the closeness. They slowly got closer… until their lips met, both sets filled with loving emotions for each other.

Sprx was so happy, he nearly jumped through the roof, feeling he could skyrocket from here to space and back in under two seconds flat; Nova felt like all was right in the world and that nothing could tear them apart.

Their kiss went by in what felt like eternity, which was actually only several heavenly seconds, went by before they broke apart; they looked lovingly into each other's eyes, unknowing of the eyes peeking at them from around the corner.

"Ha!" Chiro whispered victoriously, "You owe me five bucks Otto!"

"Monkey-doodle."

Three monkey team members were currently standing on top of one another in order to stay behind the wall-so as not to be in the doorway. Chiro, being the only full-fledge monkey, was on the bottom, grinning from ear to ear at winning his and Otto's bet; the green simian being at top. He'd usually be the bottom since he was the strongest of the monkeys', but with Chiro being a taller and heavier monkey, the weight would probably throw him off balance and reveal their hiding place.

Chiro bet the two would get together after Nova was put in danger for the first time while his fellow monkey bet that they'd get together once everything was back to normal and this madness was over.

"Otto, watch your language. I seriously doubt Sprx nor Nova would appreciate our eavesdropping on their conversation." Gibson spoke quietly. He was balancing himself on Chiro's shoulders, trying to be the group's conscious, albeit he himself was still watching the two lovebirds.

"It's not eavesdropping if you're actually _watching_ the people instead of _just_ listening to them." His leader said defensively, still whispering. "… It's spying. Besides, you're spying too, so don't try any guilty talk."

"What are you three doing?" Said a voice suddenly.

This, of coarse, startled the three monkeys and, with a loud screech, each fell over on top of each other.

Turning their heads, Chiro, Otto, and Gibson spotted Antauri giving them a 'what are you doing on the floor' look.

"Antauri!" They shouted.

"What… are you three… doing here?!" A voice hissed dangerously. Looking at each other nervously. With a big gulp, the spying monkeys turned to see their worst nightmare. . .

a _very_ pissed off yellow monkey giving them the 'you're sooo gonna die' glare, Sprx coming to stand next to her with a 'I feel sooo sorry for you guys; I'll be sure to come to your funeral' look, yet his eyes seemed to hold an equally pissed off look.

"Uhh… Oh he-hey there Nova? How, hehe, ho-ho-how you doing?" She continued to glare. "Doing fine I see. Well, not that we know we'll be on our way right guys?" The mechanic and scientist nodded furiously.

Nova continued to glare.

"RRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNN!!!" Otto shouted as all three bolted down the hallway, Antauri barely getting out of the way in time.

"GET BACK HERE!!!"

They ran into the main room and split up; Chiro going left, Gibson and Otto going right.

Chiro jumped up onto the Super Robot's pipes, swinging and jumping in order to escape Nova's fury—and her fists.

"GET BACK HERE YOU OVERGROWN FURRBALL!!! HOW DARE YOU SPY ON US WHEN WE'RE HAVING A PRIVATE CONVERSATION!!!!"

"I'm sorry! I promise I'll never do it again!!"

"DARN RIGHT YOU'LL NEVER DO IT AGAIN—'CAUSE YOU WON'T LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO TRY IT AGAIN!!"

"AHHHHH!!!!!"

While Nova was chasing and threatening her leader, Sprx had Gibson and Otto backed into a corner.

"Nn-Now Sprx, think of your condition." Gibson stuttered desperately.

"Oh, my condition's fine. Yours, however, is going to look grim _very_ soon."

"Now wait." Otto said, trying to find any excuse, "You didn't seem to be this mad earlier. And how are you going to hurt us when one of your arms is messed up?!"

"Well, let's see. I've waited _forever_ for that one perfect moment and when I _finally have it_ _right there_ _in front of me_, you three had to spoil Nova's mood, which, in-turn, spoiled mine. Basically, you ruined what I've been hoping for since the first day I saw her. As for my injury," the red monkey then activated his good arm's magnet before continuing, "You're right about that, Otto; my arm _is_ messed up." The blue and green simian let out another huge gulp, Sprx getting ever closer.

"My kick-butt skills and my _other_ arm, however, are at their peak!" With that, he advanced.

Not a few moments later, you could hear loud monkey chatter followed by more yelling and cursing, which could've only meant one thing:

Nova had caught up with Chiro.

* * *

**A/N: OH MAN I HOPE YOU GUYS DON'T HATE ME FOR BEING SO LATE IN UPDATING! I honestly don't know when I'll update again. I guess it's whenever I get into the mood or feel inspiration for this, but like I have said, I will NOT let this story die nor give up on it! Surprisingly, I got things done faster when I was school, but I guess I should thank my classes for being so boring (all except for 2nd period Art Appreciation, lol). But, just to let you guys know, again I say I don't know when I'll update next, mainly due to TF:2 coming out and sparking my TF obssession all over again. But until then I hope you guys like this. I for one love how I tried to end it on a funny note, 'cause you know they'd react similar to that if they were inturrupted in their first romantic moment, lmao. And I know the fighting again seems rushed, but honestly, I suck at writing fight scenes, so sorry for that; my bad! R&R you guys!**


	12. Apologies

Hello, dear fans of Dujunji…I wish I had better news for you, but it's not all bad, I assure you! Just keep reading.

I have tried countless times to get back into writing and updating this fic for you all, but…I've finally come to realize, I'm not going to be able to come back to this…I feel horrid telling you all this, but it's better to admit the truth now instead of continuing to string you all along like I have been up until now. I'm just not into this fandom anymore, at least not nearly as much as I was when I first was inspired to start this. I know you all know what that feels like…at least I hope you do, and yet I deeply hope you don't, because this isn't a great feeling, knowing you're disappointing so many people.

So I myself shall not be continuing this story any longer, HOWEVER! If there are any of you out there, any at all, who wants to adopt this little story of mine all you have to do is contact me with your request and I'll be more than happy to send you everything I have so far, including the plot details and such.

Yes that's what hits me the most and hurts the worst; I have the outline of this story done and figured out, and even typed up tidbits to different chapters, yet I just can't…I can't make myself type out the rest like I want. But at least this will help the adoptee should he or she want my ideas and want to follow the rest of the plot I'd intended.

I can't express how truly sorry I am to all of you over this, and I wish I could find my inspiration like I've been trying for years to do. I'm sorry to disappoint you all, and I hope you all can forgive me. I've learned my lesson though, I am no longer posting up long stories unless or until I have all the chapters typed out, then they can all be ready to send weekly or some such like that. But now I'm babbling.

Again I am very sorry over all of this, and I hope you all can forgive me, and I hope someone will want to adopt this, and if you do, just contact me saying so and I'll work it all out with you.

Full of regret for my actions,

your friend,

27


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